THE   FIFTEEN 


DECISIVE 


BATTLES  OF  THE  WORLD 


FIM)M 


MARATHON  TO  WATERLOO. 


BY  E.  S.   CREASY,  M.A. 

PUOFBSSOS   OF    ANXIKNT    AND    MODERN    HISTORY    IN    UNIVERSITY    COLI,KGh,    LOKDOk, 
I.1.TE   FELLOW    OF   KINO'S    C0LLE6B,    CAMBRIDOB. 


AoM  few  battles,  of  which  a  contrary  event  would  have  essentially  varied  the  drsmi 
of  the  world  in  all  its  subsequent  scenes. — Hallam. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS. 
329    *    331    PEARL    PTREET, 

FRANKLIN    SQUAUE- 


T  a  E  F  A  C  E. 


)i  is  ai)  honorable  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  thi^  ago, 
ihat  projects  of  violence  and  v/arfare  are  regarded  among 
civilized  states  with  gradually  increasing  aversion.  The 
Universal  Peace  Society  certainly  does  not,  and  probably 
never  will,  enroll  the  majority  of  statesmen  among  ita 
members.  But  even  those  who  look  upon  the  appeal  of 
battle  as  occasionally  unavoidable  in  international  contro- 
versies, concur  in  thinking  it  a  deplorable  necessity,  only 
to  be  resorted  to  when  all  peaceful  modes  of  arrangement 
have  been  vainly  tried,  and  when  the  law  of  self-defense 
justifies  a  state,  like  an  individual,  in  using  force  to  pro- 
tect itself  from  imminent  and  serious  injury.  For  a  writ- 
er, therefore,  of  the  present  day  to  choose  battles  for  his 
favorite  topic,  merely  because  they  were  battles  ;  merely 
because  so  many  myriads  of  troops  were  arrayed  in  them, 
and  so  many  hundreds  or  thousands  of  human  beings 
stabbed,  hewed,  or  shot  each  other  to  death  during  them, 
would  argue  strange  weakness  or  dejjravity  of  mind.  Yet 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  a  fearful  and  wonderful  interest 
is  attached  to  these  scenes  of  carnage.  There  is  undeni- 
able greatness  in  the  disciplined  courage,  and  in  the  lovo 
of  honor,  which  makes  the  combatants  confront  agony  and 
destruction.  And  the  powers  of  the  human  intellect  are 
rarely  niore  strongly  displayed  than  they  are  in  the  com- 
niaailer  who  regulates,  arrays,  and  wields  at  his  will 
these  masses  of  armed  disputants ;  who,  cool,  yet  daring 
ii  (he  midst  of  peril,  reflects  on  all,  and  provides  for  all, 
f  vor  ready  with  fresh  resources  and  designs,  as  the  vicis- 
situdes of  the  storm  of  slaugh*;er  require.     But  th.ese  qual- 


kV  PREFACE. 

ities,  however  high  they  may  appear,  are  to  be  found  in 
the  basest  as  well  as  m  the  noblest  of  mankmd.  Catil/ne 
was  as  brave  a  soldier  as  Leonidas,  and  a  iTiuch  better  of- 
ficer, Alva  surpassed  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  the  field ; 
and  Suwarrow  was  the  military  superior  of  Kosciusko.  To 
adopt  the  emphatic  words  of  Byron, 

"  'Tis  the  cause  makes  all, 
Degrades  or  hallows  eourago  in  its  fall." 

There  are  some  battles,  also,  which  claim  our  attention, 
independently  of  the  moral  worth  of  the  combatants,  on 
account  of  their  enduring  importance,  and  by  reason  v." 
the  practical  influence  on  oar  own  social  and  political  con- 
dition, which  we  can  trace  up  to  the  results  of  those  en- 
gagements. They  have  for  us  an  abiding  and  actual  in- 
terest, both  while  we  investigate  the  chain  of  causes  and 
effects  by  which  they  have  helped  to  make  us  what  we 
are,  and  also  while  we  speculate  on  what  we  probably 
should  have  been,  if  any  one  of  those  battles  had  come  to 
a  different  termination.  Hallam  has  admirably  expressed 
this  in  his  remarks  on  the  victory  gained  by  Charles  Mar- 
tel,  between  Tours  and  Poictiers,  over  the  invading  ^^ar- 
acens. 

He  says  of  it  that  "  it  may  justly  be  reckoned  among 
those  few  battles  of  which  a  contrary  event  would  have 
essentially  varied  the  drama  of  the  world  in  all  its  subse- 
quent scenes :  with  Marathon,  Arbela,  the  Metaurus,  Cha- 
lons, and  Leipsic."  It  was  the  perusal  of  this  note  of 
Hallam's  that  first  led  me  to  the  consideration  of  my  pres- 
ent  subject.  I  certainly  differ  from  that  great  historian 
us  to  the  comparative  importance  of  some  of  the  battlet^ 
which  he  thus  enumerates,  and  also  of  some  which  he 
omits.  It  is  probable,  indeed,  that  no  two  historical  in- 
quirers  would  entirely  agree  in  their  lists  of  the  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World.  DifTorent  tninds  will  naturally  vary 
in  the  impressions  which  particular  events  make  on  them, 
and  in  the  degree  of  interest  with  which  they  watch  tlie 


PREFACE 


career,  and  reflect  on  the  importance  of  different  historical 
personages.  But  our  concurring  in  our  catalogues  is  of 
little  moment,  provided  we  learn  to  look  on  these  great 
historical  events  in  the  spirit  which  Hallam's  ohservatioiii 
indicate.  Those  remarks  should  teach  us  to  watch  how 
the  interests  of  many  states  are  often  involved  in  the  col- 
lisions between  a  few  ;  and  how  the  effect  of  those  collis- 
ii'us  is  not  limited  to  a  single  age,  hut  may  give  an  im- 
pulse which  will  sway  the  fortunes  of  successive  genera- 
tions of  mankind.  Most  valuable,  also,  is  the  mental  dis- 
cipline which  is  thus  acquired,  and  by  which  we  are  trained 
not  only  to  observe  what  has  been  and  what  is,  but  also 
to  ponder  on  what  might  have  been.* 

We  thus  learn  not  to  judge  of  the  wisdom  of  measure;: 
too  exclusively  by  the  results.  We  learn  to  apply  the 
juster  standard  of  seeing  what  the  circumstances  and  th( 
probabilities  were  that  surrounded  a  statesman  or  a  gen 
eral  at  the  time  when  he  decided  on  his  plan :  we  value 
him,  not  by  his  fortune,  but  by  his  TrpoaipeaL^,  to  adopt  the 
expressive  word  of  Polybius,t  for  which  our  language  gives 
no  equivalent. 

The  reasons  why  each  of  the  following  fifteen  battles 
has  been  selected  will,  I  trust,  appear  when  it  is  described. 
Rut  it  may  be  well  to  premise  a  few  remarks  on  the  neg. 
ative  tests  which  have  led  me  to  reject  others,  which  at 
first  sight  may  appear  equal  in  magnitude  and  importance 
to  the  chosen  fifteen. 

I  need  hardly  remark  that  it  is  not  the  number  of  killed 
and  wounded  in  a  battle  that  determines  its  general  his- 
torical importance. t  It  is  not  because  only  a  few  hund- 
reds fell  in  the  battle  by  which  Joan  of  Arc  captured  the 
Tourelles  and  raised  the  siege  of  Orleans,  that  the  efleC 
of  that  crisis  is  to  be  judged ;  nor  would  a  full  belief  in 

•  See  Bolingbroke  "  On  the  Study  and  Use  of  History,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  497 
«f  his  collected  notes.  t  Polyb.,  lib.  ix.,  sect.  9. 

t  See  Montesquieu,  '  Grandeur  et  Decadence  des  Romains,"  p  36. 


ri  PREFACE. 

the  largest  number  which  Eastern  h  storians  state  to  have 
been  slaughtered  in  any  of  the  numerous  confUcts  betweeu 
A.siatic  rulers,  make  me  regard  the  engagement  in  which 
they  fell  as  one  of  paramount  importance  to  mankind. 
But,  besides  battles  of  this  kind,  there  are  many  of  great 
:!on5e<juence,  and  attended  with  circumstances  which  pow- 
erfully excite  our  feelings  and  rivet  our  attention,  and  yet 
which  appear  t3  me  of  mere  secondary  rank,  inasmuch  as 
either  their  effects  were  limited  in  area,  or  they  themselves 
merely  confirmed  some  great  tendency  or  bias  which  an 
earlier  battle  had  originated.  For  example,  the  encount- 
ers between  the  Greeks  and  Persians,  which  followed 
Marathon,  seem  to  me  not  to  have  been  phenomena  of  pri- 
mary impulse.  G-reek  superiority  had  been  already  as- 
serted, Asiatic  ambition  had  already  been  checked,  before 
i:?alamis  and  Plataea  confirmed  the  superiority  of  Europe- 
an free  states  over  Oriental  despotism.  So  j^gospotamos, 
which  finally  crushed  the  maritime  power  of  Athens,  setms 
to  me  inferior  ir]  interest  to  the  defeat  before  Syracuse, 
where  Athens  received  her  first  fatal  check,  and  after  which 
she  only  struggled  to  retard  her  downfall.  I  think  simi- 
larly of  Zama  with  respect  to  Carthage,  as  compTcd  with 
'>he  Metaurus  ;  and,  on  the  same  principle,  the  subsequent 
great  battles  of  the  Revolutionary  war  appear  to  me  infe- 
rior in  their  importance  to  Valmy,  which  first  determined 
the  military  character  and  career  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. 

I  am  aware  that  a  little  activity  of  imagination  and  a 
slight  exercise  of  metaphysical  ingenuity  may  amuse  us 
by  showing  how  the  chain  of  circumstances  is  so  linked 
together,  that  the  smallest  skirmish,  or  the  slightest  oc- 
currence of  any  kind,  that  ever  occurred,  may  be  said  to 
have  been  essential  in  its  actual  termination  to  the  whole 
ordei  of  subsequent  events.  But  when  T  speak  of  causes 
and  effects,  I  speak  of  the  obvious  and  important  agency 
ol  one  fact  upon  another,  and  not  of  remote  and  fancifully 


PREFACE.  vr 


infinitesimal  influences.  I  am  aware  that,  on  the  otliei 
hand,  the  reproach  of  Fatalism  is  justly  incurred  by  those 
who,  like  the  writers  of  a  certain  school  in  a  neighboring 
country,  recognize  in  history  nothing  more  than  a  series 
of  necessary  phenomena,  which  follow  inevitably  one  upon 
the  other.  But  when,  in  this  work,  I  speak  of  probabili- 
t  ies,  I  speak  of  human  probabilities  only.  "When  I  speak 
of  cause  and  effect,  I  speak  of  those  general  laws  only  by 
which  we  perceive  the  sequence  of  human  affairs  to  be 
usually  regulated,  and  in  which  we  recognize  emphatic- 
ally the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  supreme  Lawgiver,  thti 
design  of  the  Designer. 

Mitre  Court  Chambers    Temple   > 
JuHtte,  1851.  ) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Battle  of  Marathon 13 

Explanatory  Remarks  on  some  of  the  Circumstances  of  the  Battle  (f 
Marathon 43 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Marathon,  B.C,  490,  and  the 
Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse,  B.C.  413 45 


CHAPTER  n. 

Defeat  of  the  Athe.vians  at  Syracuse,  B.C.  413 48 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse 
and  the  Battle  of  Arbela 67 

CHAPTER  m. 

The  Battle  of  Arbela,  B.C.  331 69 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Arbela  and  the  Battle  of  the 
Metaurus 91 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Battle  of  the  Metaurus,  B.C.  207  96 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  the  Metaurus,  B.C.  207,  and 
Arminius's  Victoiy  over  the  Roman  Legions  under  Varus,  A.D.  9. ..    123 

CHAPTER  V. 

VlCTlRY  OF  ArMI.VIUS  OVER  THE  ROMAN    LeGIONS  UNDER  VaRCS,  A.D.  9    127 

Arminius 141 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  Arminius's  Victory  over  Varus  and  the 

Battle  of  Cho'.ons 1S1 

A  2 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Batti.k  of  Chalons,  A.D   451 153 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Chalons,  A.D.  451,  and  the 
Battle  of  Tours,  732 168 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

The  Battle  of  Tours,  A.D.  732 16!; 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Tours,  A.D.  732,  and  the  Bat- 
tle of  Hastings.  A.D.  1066 179 

CHAPTER  Vm. 

The  Battle  of  Hastings,  A.D.  1066 182 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  A.D.  1066,  and 
loan  of  Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans,  A.D.  1429 214 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  over  the  English  at  Orleans,  A.D.  1429  218 
Synopsis  of  Events  between  Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans,  A.D. 
1429,  and  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  A.D.  1588 237 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  A.D.  1588 239 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  A.D. 
1588,  and  the  Battle  of  Blenheim,  A.D.  1704 263 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Battle  of  Blenheim,  A.D.  1704 265 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Blenheim,  A.D.  1704,  and  the 
Battle  of  Pultowa,  A.D.  1709 288 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Battle  of  Pultowa,  A.D.  1709 28S 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Pultowa,  A.D.  1709,  and  the 
Defeat  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga,  A.D   1777 SOC 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

/iCTORY  OF  THE  AMERICANS   OVKR   BuRGOYNE   AT  SARATOGA,  A.D.  1777    305 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  Burgoyue  at  Saratoga,  A.D. 
1777,  and  the  Battle  of  Valmy  A.D.  1792 327 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
The  Battle  of  Valmy,  A.D.  1792 328 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Valmy,  A.D.  1792,  and  the 
Battle  of  Waterloo,  A.D.  1815 343 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Thi  Battle  or  Waterloo,  A.D.  1815 34b 


FIFTEEN   DECISIVE    BATTLES 
OF   THE    WORLD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    MARATHON. 

"  Quibus  actus  uterque 
Europae  atque  Asiae  fatis  concurrerit  orbis." 

Two  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty  years  ago,  a  couneu 
of  Athenian  officers  was  summoned  on  the  slope  of  one  of  the 
mountains  that  look  over  the  plain  of  Marathon,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Attica.  The  immediate  subject  of  their  meeting  was  to 
consider  whether  they  should  give  battle  to  an  enemy  that  lay 
encamped  on  the  shore  beneath  them  ;  but  on  the  result  of  theii 
deliberations  depended,  not  merely  the  fate  of  two  armies,  but 
the  whole  future  progress  of  human  civilization. 

There  were  eleven  members  of  that  council  of  war.  Ten  were 
the  generals  who  were  then  annually  elected  at  Athens,  one  for 
each  of  the  local  tribes  into  which  the  Athenians  were  divided. 
Each  general  led  the  men  of  his  own  tribe,  and  each  was  invested 
with  equal  military  authority.  But  one  of  the  archons  was  also 
associated  with  them  in  the  general  command  of  the  army.  This 
magistrate  was  termed  the  polemarch  or  War-ruler  ;  he  had  the 
privilege  of  leading  the  right  wing  of  the  army  in  battle,  and  his 
vote  in  a  council  of  war  was  equal  to  that  of  any  of  the  generals. 
A  noble  Athenian  named  Callimachus  was  the  \N^ar-ruler  of  this 
year  ;  and  as  such,  stood  listening  to  the  earnest  discussion  of  the 
ten  generals.  They  had,  indeed,  deep  matter  for  anxiety,  though 
little  aware  how  momentous  to  mankind  were  the  votes  they  were 
about  to  give,  or  how  the  generations  to  come  would  read  with 


1»  BATTLE     OF     MARATHON. 

interest  the  record  of  their  discussions.  They  saw  before  them 
the  invading  forces  of  a  mighty  empire,  which  had  in  tltie  last 
fifty  years  shattered  and  enslaved  nearly  all  the  kingdoms  and 
principahties  of  the  then  known  world.  They  knew  that  all  the 
resources  of  their  own  country  were  comprised  in  the  little  army 
intrusted  to  their  guidance.  They  saw  before  them  a  chosen 
host  of  the  Great  King,  sent  to  wreak  his  special  wrath  on  that 
country,  and  on  the  other  insolent  little  Greek  community,  vvluch 
had  dared  to  aid  his  rebels  and  burn  the  capital  of  one  of  his 
provinces.  That  victorious  host  had  already  fulfilled  'half  its 
mission  of  vengeance.  Eretria,  the  confederate  of  Athens  in  the 
bold  march  against  Sardis  nine  years  before,  had  fallen  m  the 
last  few  days  ;  and  the  Athenian  generals  could  discern  from  the 
heights  the  island  of  JEgilia,  in  which  the  Persians  had  depos- 
ited their  Eretrian  prisoners,  whom  they  had  resen-^ed  to  be  led 
away  captives  into  Upper  Asia,  there  to  hear  their  doom  from 
the  lips  of  King  Darius  himself.  Moreover,  the  men  of  Athens 
knew  that  in  the  camp  before  them  was  their  own  banished  ty 
rant,  who  was  seeking  to  be  reinstated  by  foreign  cimeters  in 
despotic  sway  over  any  remnant  of  his  countrymen  that  might 
survive  the  sack  of  their  town,  and  might  be  left  behind  as  too 
worthless  for  leading  away  into  Median  bondage. 

The  numerical  disparity  between  the  force  which  the  Athenian 
commanders  had  under  them,  and  that  which  they  were  called 
on  to  encounter,  was  hopelessly  apparent  to  some  of  the  council. 
The  historians  who  wrote  nearest  to  the  time  of  the  battle  do 
not  pretend  to  give  any  detailed  statements  of  the  numbers  en- 
gaged, but  there  are  sufficient  data  for  our  making  a  general  es- 
timate. Every  free  Greek  was  trained  to  military  duty  ;  and, 
from  the  incessant  border  wars  between  the  different  states,  few 
Greeks  reached  the  age  of  manhood  without  having  seen  some 
service.  But  the  muster-roll  of  free  Athenian  citizens  of  an  age 
fit  for  military  duty  never  exceeded  thirty  thousand,  and  at  this 
epoch  probably  did  not  amount  to  two  thirds  of  that  number. 
Moreover,  the  ])oorer  portion  of  these  were  unprovided  wuth  thn 
equijmiente,  and  untrained  to  the  operations  of  the  regular  in- 
fantry. Some  detachments  of  the  best-armed  troops  M'oidd  be 
required  to  garrison  the  city  itself  and  man  the  various  fortifiecf 
posts  in  the  territory  ;  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  reckon  the  fully 
equipped  force  that  marched  from  Athens  to  Marathop    whec 


BATTLEOFMARATHON.  l.*! 

the  uews  of  the  Persian  landing  arrived,  at  higher  than  ten  ihuu- 
Band  men-^**" 

Witt,  one  exception,  the  other  Greeks  held  back  from  aidinp 
th(xn.  Sparta  hud  promised  assistance,  bnt  the  Persians  had  land- 
ed on  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon,  and  a  religious  scruple  delayed 
the  march  of  Spartan  troops  till  the  moon  should  have  reached  its 
full  From  one  quarter  only,  and  that  from  a  most  unexpected 
0113,  did  Athens  receive  aid  at  the  morient  of  her  great  peril. 

Some  years  before  this  time  the  little  state  of  Plata;a  in  Bo,- 
jlia,  being  hard  pressed  by  her  powerful  neighbor,  Thebes,  had 
asked  the  protection  of  Athens,  and  had  owed  to  an  Athenian 
army  the  rescue  of  her  independence.  Now  when  it  was  noised 
over  Greece  that  the  Mede  had  come  from  the  uttermost  parta 
of  the  earth  to  destroy  Athens,  the  brave  Platseans,  unsolicited, 
marched  with  their  whole  force  to  assist  the  defense,  and  tc 
share  the  fortunes  of  their  benefactors.  The  general  levy  of  the 
Plataeans  only  amounted  to  a  thousand  men  ;  and  this  little  col- 
umn, marching  from  their  city  along  the  southern  ridge  of  Mount 
Cithajron,  and  thence  across  the  Attic  territory,  joined  the  Athe- 
nian forces  above  Marathon  almost  immediately  before  the  bat- 
tle. The  re-enforcement  was  numerically  small,  but  the  gallant 
spirit  of  the  men  who  composed  it  must  have  made  it  of  ten-fold 
value  to  the  Athenians ;  and  its  presence  must  have  gone  far 
to  dispel  the  cheerless  feeling  of  being  deserted  and  friendless, 
which  the  delay  of  the  Spartan  succors  was  calculated  to  create 
among  the  Athenian  ranks. t 

*  The  historians,  who  lived  long  after  the  time  of  the  battle,  such  as 
Justin,  Plutarch,  and  others,  give  ten  thousand  as  the  number  of  the 
Athenian  army.  Not  much  reliance  could  be  placed  on  their  authority, 
if  unsupported  by  other  evidence  ;  but  a  calculation  made  for  the  number 
of  the  Athenian  free  population  remarkably  confirms  it.  For  the  data  of 
this  see  Boeckh's  "  Public  Economy  of  Athens,"  vol.  i.,  p.  45.  Some  Me 
ToiKu  probably  served  as  Hoplites  at  Marathon,  but  the  number  of  resi- 
dent aliens  at  Athens  can  not  have  been  large  at  this  period. 

t  Mr.  Groie  observes  (vol.  iv.,  p.  464)  that  "this  volunteer  march  of  the 
R'hole  Platffian  force  to  Marathon  is  one  of  the  most  affecting  incidents 
of  all  Giecian  history."  In  truth,  the  whole  career  of  PlatEca,  and  the 
friendship,  strong,  even  unto  death,  between  her  and  Athens,  form  one  of 
the  most  affecting  episodes  in  the  history  of  antiquity.  In  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war  the  Platsans  again  were  true  to  the  Athenians  against  all  risks, 
and  all  calculation  of  self-interest ;  and  the  destruction  of  PhUaea  was  the 
consequence     There  are  few  nobler  passages  in  the  classics  than  the 


It-  3AliLE     OF     MARA1H0N. 

This  generous  daring  of  their  weak  but  true-hearted  ally  was 
nuver  forgottea  at  Athens.  The  Plataeans  were  made  the  civil 
fellow-countrymen  of  the  Athenians,  except  the  right  of  exercis- 
ing certain  political  functions  ;  and  from  that  time  forth,  in  the 
solemn  sacrifices  at  Athens,  the  pubhc  prayers  were  offered  up 
for  a  joint  blessing  from  Heaven  upon  the  Athenians,  and  the 
Plataeans  also. 

After  the  junction  of  the  column  from  Platsea,  the  Atheniac 
commanders  must  have  had  under  them  about  eleven  thousand 
fully-armed  and  disciplined  infantry,  and  probably  a  larger  num- 
ber of  irregular  light-armed  troops  ;  as,  besides  the  poorer  citi- 
zens who  went  to  the  field  armed  with  javelins,  cutlasses,  and 
targets,  each  regular  heavy-armed  solditr  was  attended  in  the 
camp  by  one  or  more  slaves,  who  were  armed  like  the  inferior 
freemen.*  Cavalry  or  archers  the  Athenians  (on  this  occasion) 
had  none  ;  and  the  use  in  the  field  of  military  engines  was  not 
at  that  period  introduced  into  ancient  warfare. 

Contrasted  with  their  own  scanty  forces,  the  Greek  command- 
ers saw  stretched  before  them,  along  the  shores  of  the  winding 
bay,  the  tents  and  shipping  of  the  varied  nations  who  marched 
to  do  the  bidding  of  the  king  of  the  Eastern  world.  The  diffi- 
culty of  finding  transports  and  of  securing  provisions  would  form 
the  only  limit  to  the  numbers  of  a  Persian  army.  Nor  is  there 
any  reason  to  suppose  the  estimate  of  Justin  exaggerated,  who 
rates  at  a  hundred  thousand  the  force  which  on  this  occasion  had 
Bailed,  under  the  satraps  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  from  the  Cili- 
cian  shores  against  the  devoted  coasts  of  Euboea  and  Attica. 
And  after  largely  deducting  from  this  total,  so  as  to  allow  for 
mere  mariners  and  camp  followers,  there  must  still  have  remained 
fearful  odds  against  the  national  levies  of  the  Athenians.  Nor 
could  Greek  generals  then  feel  that  confidence  in  the  superior 
quality  of  their  troops,  which  ever  since  the  battle  of  Marathon 
has  animated  Europeans  in  conflicts  ■with  Asiatics  ;  as,  for  in- 
Btance,  in  the  after  struggles  between  Greece  and  Persia,  or  when 

■peech  in  which  the  Platffian  prisoners  ot  war,  after  the  memorable  siege 
of  their  cit)',  justify  beforo  their  Spartan  executioners  their  loyal  adherence 
to  Athens.     See  Thucyf'iides,  lib.  iii.,  sees.  63-60. 

*  A :  the  battle  of  Plataa,  eleven  years  after  Marathon,  each  of  the  eight 
thousaad  Athenian  regular  infantry  who  served  them  was  attended  by  i 
Jight-armed  slave.—  Herod.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  28,  29. 


n  A  T  I  L  E     O  F     M  A  R  A  T  II  O  N.  17 

i]\c  \\{>\n\in  legions  encountered  the  myriads  of  Mithradates  and 
Tijiianes,  or  as  is  the  case  in  the  Indian  campaigns  of  our  owa 
rt'giments.  On  the  contrary,  up  to  the  day  of  Marathon  the 
Medes  and  Persians  were  reputed  invincible  They  had  more 
than  once  met  Greek  troops  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Cyprus,  in  Egypt, 
and  had  invariably  beaten  them.  Nothing  can  be  stronger  than 
the  expressions  used  by  the  early  Greek  writers  respecting  the 
terror  which  the  name  of  the  Medes  inspired,  and  the  prostration 
of  men's  spirits  before  the  apparently  resistless  career  of  the  Per- 
sian arms.*  It  is,  therefore,  little  to  be  wondered  at,  that  five 
of  the  ten  Athenian  generals  shrank  from  the  prospect  of  fight- 
ing a  pitched  battle  against  an  enemy  so  superior  in  numbers 
and  so  formidable  in  military  renown.  Their  own  position  on 
tlie  heights  was  strong,  and  ofi^ered  great  advantages  to  a  small 
defending  force  against  assailing  masses.  They  deemed  it  mere 
foolhardiness  to  descend  into  the  plain  to  be  trampled  down  by 
the  Asiatic  horse,  overAvhelmed  with  the  archery,  or  cut  to  pieces 
by  the  invincible  veterans  of  Cambyses  and  Cyrus.  Moreover, 
Sparta,  the  great  war-state  of  Greece,  had  been  applied  to,  and 
had  promised  succor  to  Athens,  though  the  religious  observance 
which  the  Dorians  paid  to  certain  times  and  seasons  had  for  the 
present  delayed  their  march.  Was  it  not  wise,  at  any  rate,  to 
wait  till  the  Spartans  came  up,  and  to  have  the  help  of  the  best 
troops  in  Greece,  before  they  exposed  themselves  to  the  shock  of 
the  dreaded  Medes  ? 

Specious  as  these  reasons  might  appear,  the  other  five  gener 
als  were  for  speedier  and  bolder  operations.  And,  fortunately 
for  Athens  and  for  the  world,  one  of  them  was  a  man,  not  only 
of  the  highest  military  genius,  but  also  of  that  energetic  charac- 
ter, which  impresses  its  own  type  and  ideas  upon  spirits  feebler 
in  conception. 

Miltiades  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  noblest  houses  at  Athens  ; 
he  ranked  the  jEacidae  among  his  ancestry,  and  the  blood  of 
Achilles  flowed  in  the  veins  of  the  hero  of  Marathon.  One  of 
his  immediate  ancestors  had  acquired  the  dominion  of  the  Thra- 

*  'Adrjvaloi  irpuTot  dviaxovTO  eadJJTa,  re  M.r)6iKTiv  ipiuvre^,  Koi  rohg  uvdpai 
lavTTjv  kaBrifiivov^-  reur  6e  fiv  rolai  'EAXj/ffi  Koi  to  ovvofia  tuv  Mrjduv  ^66oi 
i^ovaat. — Herodotus,  lib.  vi.,  c.  112. 

A2  de  yvuf^ai  6edov?.ufievai  dndvTuv  avdpu-juv  fjaav  ovtu  Ttj/lAd  Kal  /ufyuAa 
ai  fiaxil^9  yevt]  KaradedovXuiievi]  ^v  tj  Uepauv  apxfi- — Pi.ato,  Menexenut 


18  BATTLE     OF     MARA      no     . 

cian  Chersonese,  and  thus  the  family  became  at  the  same  tine 
Athenian  citizens  and  Thracian  princes.  This  occurred  at  the 
time  when  Pisistratus  was  tyrant  of  Athens.  Two  of  the  rela- 
tives of  Miltiades  —  an  uncle  of  the  same  name,  and  a  brother 
named  Stesagoras  —  had  ruled  the  Chersonese  before  Miltiades 
became  its  prince.  He  had  been  brought  up  at  Athens  in  the 
house  of  his  father,  Cimon,*  who  was  renowned  throughout 
(j recce  for  his  victories  in  the  Olympic  chariot-races,  and  wlo 
must  have  been  possessed  of  great  wealth.  The  sons  of  Pisis- 
tratus, who  succeeded  their  father  in  the  tyranny  at  Athens, 
caused  Cimon  to  be  assassinated  ;t  but  they  treated  the  young 
Miltiades  with  favor  and  kindness,  and  when  his  brother  Stesag- 
oras died  in  the  Chersonese,  they  sent  him  out  there  as  lord  of 
the  principality.  This  was  about  twenty-eight  years  before  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  and  it  is  with  his  arrival  in  the  Chersonese 
that  our  first  knowledge  of  the  career  and  character  of  Miltiades 
commences.  We  find,  in  the  first  act  lecorded  of  him,  the  proof 
of  the  same  resolute  and  unscrupulous  spirit  that  marked  his 
mature  age.  His  brother's  authority  in  the  principality  had  been 
shaken  by  war  and  revolt :  Miltiades  determined  to  rule  more 
securely.  On  his  arrival  he  kept  close  within  his  house,  as  if  he 
was  mourning  for  his  brother.  The  principal  men  of  the  Cher- 
Bonebe,  hearing  of  this,  assembled  from  all  the  towns  and  dis- 
tricts, and  went  together  to  the  house  of  Miltiades,  on  a  visit  of 
condolence.  As  soon  as  he  had  thus  got  them  in  his  power,  he 
made  them  all  prisoners.  He  then  asserted  and  maintained  hie 
own  absolute  authority  in  the  peninsula,  taking  into  his  pay  a 
body  of  fivr3  hundred  regular  troops,  and  strengthening  his  inter- 
est by  marrying  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  neighboring 
Thracians. 

When  the  Persian  power  was  extended  to  the  Hellespont  and 
its  neighborhood,  Miltiades,  as  prince  of  the  Chersonese,  submit- 
ted to  King  Darius ;  and  he  was  one  of  the  numerous  tributary 
rulers  who  led  their  contingents  of  men  to  serve  in  the  Persian 
army,  in  the  expedition  against  Scythia.  Miltiades  ard  the 
vassal  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  were  left  by  the  Persian  kii.if  in 
charge  of  the  bridge  across  the  Danube,  when  the  invading  army 
crossed  that  river,  and  plunged  into  the  wilds  of  the  country  that 
aow  is  Russia,  in  vain  pursuit  of  the  ancestors  of  the  modeir 
•  Herodotus,  lib.  vi.,  c.  108.  t  lb. 


BATTLE     OF     MARATHON.  13 

Cossa(  ks.  On  learning  the  reverses  that  Darius  met  with  in  the 
Scythian  wilderness,  Miltiadcs  proposed  to  his  companions  that 
they  should  break  the  bridge  down,  and  leave  the  Persian  king 
and  his  army  to  perish  by  famine  and  the  Scythian  arrows  The 
rulers  of  the  Asiatic  Greek  cities,  whom  Miltiades  addressed, 
shrank  from  this  bold  but  ruthless  stroke  against  the  Persian 
power,  and  Darius  returned  in  safety,  ""^ut  it  was  known  what 
advice  Miltiades  had  given,  and  the  vengeance  of  Darius  waa 
thenceforth  specially  directed  against  the  man  who  had  counsel- 
ed Buch  a  deadly  blow  against  his  empire  and  his  person.  The 
occupation  of  the  Persian  arms  in  other  quai'ters  left  Miltiades 
for  some  years  after  this  in  possession  of  the  Chersonese  ;  but  it 
was  precarious  and  interrupted.  He,  however,  availed  himself 
of  the  opportunity  which  his  position  gave  him  of  conciliating 
the  good  will  of  his  fellow-countrymen  at  Athens,  by  conquering 
and  placing  under  the  Athenian  authority  the  islands  of  Lemnoa 
and  Imbros,  to  which  Athens  had  ancient  claims,  but  which  she 
had  never  previously  been  able  to  bring  into  complete  subjection. 
At  length,  in  494  B.C.,  the  complete  suppression  of  the  Ionian 
revolt  by  the  Persians  left  their  armies  and  fleets  at  liberty  tc 
act  against  the  enemies  of  the  Great  King  to  the  west  of  the 
Hellespont.  A  strong  squadron  of  Phoenician  galleys  was  sent 
against  the  Chersonese.  Miltiades  knew  that  resistance  was 
hopeless  ;  and  while  the  Phoenicians  were  at  Tenedos,  he  loaded 
five  galleys  with  all  the  treasure  that  he  could  collect,  and  sdii 
cd  away  for  Athens.  The  Phamicians  fell  in  with  him,  and 
chased  him  hard  along  the  north  of  the  jEgean.  One  of  his  gal- 
leys, on  board  of  which  was  his  eldest  son  Metiochus,  was  actu- 
ally captured.  But  Miltiades,  with  the  other  four,  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  friendly  coast  of  Imbros  in  safety.  Thence  he  aft- 
erward proceeded  to  Athens,  and  resumed  his  station  as  a  free 
r.itizen  of  the  Athenian  commonwealth. 

The  Athenians,  at  this  time,  had  recently  expelled  Hippias, 
the  son  of  Pisistratus,  the  last  of  their  tyrants.  They  were  in 
the  full  glow  of  their  newly-rccoveied  liberty  and  equality  ;  and 
'he  constitutional  changes  of  Cleisthenes  had  inflamed  their  re- 
f 'iblicau  zeal  to  the  utmost  Miltiades  had  enemies  at  Athens  , 
and  these,  availing  themselves  of  the  state  of  popular  feeling, 
brought  him  to  trial  for  his  life  for  having  been  tyrant  of  the 
■Jhersonese      The  ch  arge  did  not  necessarily  import  any  acts  of 


iO  BATTLE     OF     MARATHON. 

Tut'Ity  or  wrong  to  individuals  :  it  was  founded  on  no  spocifia 
law  ;  but  it  was  based  on  the  horror  with  which  the  Greeks  of 
that  age  regarded  every  man  who  made  himself  arbitrary  mas- 
ter  of  his  fellow-men,  and  exercised  irresponsible  dominion  over 
tlieni.  The  fact  of  Miltiades  having  so  ruled  in  the  Chersonese 
was  undeniable  ;  but  the  question  "^hich  the  Athenians  assem- 
bled in  judgment  must  have  tried,  was  whether  Miltiades,  al- 
though tyrant  of  the  Chersonese,  deserved  punishment  as  an 
Athenian  citizen.  The  eminent  service  that  he  had  done  the 
state  in  conquering  Lemnos  and  Imbros  for  it,  pleaded  strongly 
in  his  favor.  The  people  refused  to  convict  him.  He  stood  high 
in  public  opinion.  And  when  the  coming  invasion  of  the  Per- 
sians was  known,  the  people  wisely  elected  him  one  of  their 
generals  for  the  year. 

Two  other  men  of  high  eminence  in  history,  though  their  re- 
nown was  achieved  at  a  later  period  than  that  of  Miltiades,  were 
also  among  the  ten  Athenian  generals  at  Marathon.  One  was 
Themistocles,  the  future  founder  of  the  Athenian  navy,  and  the 
destined  victor  of  Salamis.  The  other  was  Aristides,  who  after- 
ward led  the  Athenian  troops  at  Platsea,  and  whose  integrity  and 
just  popularity  acquired  for  his  country,  when  the  Persians  had 
finally  been  repulsed,  the  advantageous  pre-eminence  of  being 
acknowledged  by  half  of  the  Greeks  as  their  imperial  leader  and 
protector.  It  is  not  recorded  what  part  either  Themistocles  or 
Aristides  took  in  the  debate  of  the  council  of  Avar  at  Marathon. 
But,  from  the  character  of  Themistocles,  his  boldness,  and  his 
intuitive  genius  for  extemporizing  the  best  measures  in  every 
emergency*  (a  quality  which  the  greatest  of  historians  ascribes 
to  him  beyond  all  his  contemporaries),  we  may  well  believe  that 
the  vote  of  Themistocles  was  for  prompt  and  decisive  action.  On 
the  vote  of  Aristides  it  may  be  more  difficult  to  speculate.  His 
predilection  for  the  Spartans  may  have  made  him  wish  to  wait 
till  they  came  up  ;  but,  though  circumspect,  he  was  neither  timid 
as  a  soldier  nor  as  a  politician,  and  the  bold  advice  of  Miltiades 
may  probably  have  found  in  Aristides  a  wilhng.  most  assuredly 
it  found  in  him  a  candid  hearer. 

*  See  the  character  of  Themistocles  in  the  138th  section  of  the  firs 
book  of  Thucydides,  especially  the  last  sentence.  Kal  to  ^vfxnav  dntiv 
^vaeu^  /lEV  dvvduei  ut  If-rryf  de  ^paxirTjTi  KpaTLOToq  drj  ovto(  avro(T^t()ia^(« 
tfj  6iovra  iyevero. 


BATTLK     JF     MAllATHON.  21 

Miltiades  felt  no  hesitation  as  to  the  course  which  the  Athe 
Qian  army  ought  to  pursue  ;  and  earnestly  did  he  press  his  opin- 
ion on  his  brother-generals.  Practically  acquainted  with  tlie  or- 
ganization of  the  Persian  armies,  Miltiades  felt  convinced  of  the 
superiority  of  the  Greek  troops,  if  properly  handled  ;  he  saw  with 
the  military  eye  of  a  great  general  the  advantage  which  the  po 
eition  of  the  forces  gave  him  for  a  sudden  attack,  and  as  a  pro 
found  politician  he  felt  the  perils  of  remaining  inactive,  and  of 
giving  treachery  time  to  ruin  the  Athenian  cause. 

One  officer  in  the  council  of  war  had  not  yet  voted.  This  was 
Callimachus,  the  War- ruler.  The  votes  of  the  generals  were  five 
and  five,  so  that  the  voice  of  Callimachus  would  be  decisive 

On  that  vote,  in  all  human  probability,  the  destiny  of  all  iin. 
nations  of  the  world  depended.  Miltiades  turned  to  him,  and  in 
simple  soldierly  eloquence,  the  substance  of  which  we  may  read 
faithfully  reported  in  Herodotus,  who  had  conversed  with  the  vet 
erans  of  Marathon,  the  great  Athenian  thus  adjured  his  country- 
men to  vote  for  giving  battle. 

"  It  now  rests  with  you,  Callimachus,  either  to  enslave  Athens, 
or,  by  assuring  her  freedom,  to  win  yourself  an  immortality  of 
fame,  such  as  not  even  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton  have  acquired; 
for  never,  since  the  Athenians  were  a  people,  were  they  in  such 
danger  as  they  are  in  at  this  moment.  If  they  bow  the  knee  to 
these  Medes,  they  arc  to  be  given  up  to  Hippias,  and  you  know 
what  they  then  will  have  to  sufler.  But  if  Athens  comes  victo- 
rious out  of  this  contest,  she  has  it  in  her  to  become  the  first  city 
of  Greece.  Your  vote  is  to  decide  whether  we  are  to  join  battle 
or  not.  If  we  do  not  bring  on  a  battle  presently,  some  factious 
intrigue  will  disunite  the  Athenians,  and  the  city  will  be  betrayed 
to  the  Medes.  But  if  we  fight,  before  there  is  any  thing  rotten 
in  the  state  of  Athens,  I  believe  that,  provided  the  gods  will  give 
fair  play  and  no  favor,  we  are  able  to  get  the  best  of  it  in  an  en- 
gagement."* 

•  Herodotus,  lib.  vi.,  sec.  109.  The  116lh  section  is  to  my  mind  cleai 
proof  tbat  Herodotus  had  personally  conversed  with  Epizelus,  one  of 
the  veterans  of  Marathon.  The  substance  of  the  speech  of  Miltiades 
would  naturally  become  known  by  the  report  of  some  of  his  colleagues 
The  speeches  which  ancient  historians  place  in  the  mouths  of  kings  an* 
generals  are  generally  inventions  of  their  own  ;  but  part  of  this  speech  oi 
Miltiades  bears  internal  evidence  of  authenticity.     Su-^h  is  the  case  will 


C3  B  A  T  T  L  E     O  F     M  A  R  A  T  II  O  N 

The  vote  of  the  biave  War-ruler  was  gained ;  the  council 
determined  to  give  battle  ;  and  such  vi'as  the  ascendency  and 
acknowledged  military  eminence  of  Miltiades,  that  his  brother 
generals  one  and  all  gave  up  their  days  of  command  to  him,  and 
cheerfully  acted  under  his  orders.  Fearful,  however,  of  creating 
any  jealousy,  and  of  so  failing  to  obtain  the  vigorous  co-opera 
foT  of  all  parts  of  his  small  army,  Miltiades  waited  till  the  daj 
wain  the  chief  command  would  have  come  round  to  him  in  reg- 
ulai  rotation  before  he  led  the  troops  against  the  enemy. 

The  inaction  of  the  Asiatic  commanders  during  this  interval 
appears  strange  at  first  sight ;  but  Hippias  was  with  tliem,  and 
they  and  he  were  aware  of  their  chance  of  a  bloodless  conquest 
through  the  machinations  of  his  partisans  among  the  Athenians 
The  nature  of  the  ground  also  explains  in  many  points  the  tac- 
tics of  the  opposite  generals  before  the  battle,  as  well  as  the  op- 
erations of  the  troops  during  the  engagement, 

The  plain  of  Marathon,  which  is  about  twenty-two  miles  dis 
tant  from  Athens,  lies  along  the  bay  of  the  same  name  on  the 
northeastern  coast  of  Attica.  The  plain  is  nearly  in  the  form 
of  a  crescent,  and  about  six  miles  in  length.  It  is  about  two 
miles  broad  in  the  centre,  where  the  space  between  the  mount- 
ains and  the  sea  is  greatest,  but  it  narrows  toward  either  ex- 
tremity, the  mountains  coming  close  down  to  the  water  at  the 
horns  of  the  bay.  There  is  a  valley  trending  inward  from  the 
middle  of  the  plain,  and  a  ravine  comes  down  to  it  to  the  south- 
ward. Elsewhere  it  is  closely  girt  round  on  the  land  side  by 
rugged  limestone  mountains,  which  are  thickly  studded  with 
pines,  olive-trees,  and  cedars,  and  overgrown  with  the  myrtle, 
arbutus,  and  the  other  low  odoriferous  shrubs  that  every  where 
perfume  the  Attic  air.  The  level  of  the  ground  is  now  varied 
by  the  mound  raised  over  those  who  fell  in.  the  battle,  but  it  was 
an  unbroken  plain  when  the  Persians  encamped  on  it.  There 
ftre  marshes  at  each  end,  which  are  dry  in  spring  and  summer, 
arid  then  ofl'er  no  obstruction  ^o  the  horseman,  but  are  common 

Iht  remarkable  expression  yv  6i  ^v/i6uXu/j.cv  nplv  tl  Kal  anOpov  Wdr]vaiu> 
tUtt^tTEpniai  kyyeveadat,  i^twv  tu  laa  vsfiovTa^v,  oloi  re  et/2ev  irepiyevendai  rg 
av/iio'iy.  This  daring  and  almost  irreverent  assertion  would  never  have 
been  coined  by  Herodotus,  but  it  is  precisely  consonant  with  what  we 
Know  of  the  character  of  Miltiades  ;  and  it  is  an  expression  which,  if  uaoc' 
by  bim.  would  he  sure  to  be  remembered  and  reoeated  by  his  hrarers. 


BATTLE     OF     MARA"'UON.  23 

ly  flooded  with  rain  and  so  rendered  impracticable  for  cavalry 
in  the  autumn,  the  time  of  year  at  which  the  action  took  place. 

The  Greeks,  lying  encamped  on  the  mountains,  could  watch 
every  movement  of  the  Persians  on  the  plain  below,  while  they 
were  enabled  completely  to  mask  their  own.  Miltiades  also 
had,  from  his  position,  the  pDwer  of  giving  battle  whenever  he 
p  eased,  or  of  delaying  it  at  his  discretion,  unless  Datis  weie  to 
attempt  the  perilous  operation  of  storming  the  heights. 

If  we  turn  to  the  map  of  the  Old  "World,  to  test  the  compar- 
ative territorial  resources  of  the  two  states  whose  armies  were 
now  about  to  come  into  conflict,  the  immense  preponderance  of 
the  material  power  of  the  Persian  king  over  that  of  the  Athenian 
republic  is  more  striking  than  any  similar  contrast  which  history 
can  supply.  It  has  been  truly  remarked,  that,  in  estimating 
mere  areas,  Attica,  containing  on  its  whole  surface  only  seven 
hundred  square  miles,  shrinks  into  insignificance  if  compared  with 
many  a  baronial  fief  of  the  Middle  Ages,  or  many  a  colonial 
allotment  of  modern  tmies.  Its  antagonist,  the  Persian  empire, 
comprised  the  M'hole  of  modern  Asiatic  and  much  of  modern 
European  Turkey,  the  modern  kingdom  of  Persia,  and  the  coun 
tries  of  modern  Georgia,  Armenia,  Balkh,  the  Punjaub,  Afghan- 
istan, Beloochistan,  Egypt,  and  Tripoli. 

Nor  could  a  European,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century 
before  our  era,  look  upon  this  huge  accumulation  of  power  be- 
neath the  sceptre  of  a  single  Asiatic  ruler  with  the  indifference 
with  which  we  now  observe  on  the  map  the  extensive  domin- 
ions of  modern  Oriental  sovereigns ;  for,  as  has  been  already  re- 
marked, before  Marathon  was  fought,  the  prestige  of  success  and 
of  supposed  superiority  of  race  was  on  the  side  of  the  Asiatic 
against  the  European.  Asia  was  the  original  seat  of  human 
societies,  and  long  before  any  trace  can  be  found  of  the  inhabit 
ants  of  the  rest  of  the  world  having  emerged  from  the  rudest 
barbarism,  we  can  perceive  that  mighty  and  brilliant  empires 
flourished  in  the  Asiatic  continent.  They  appear  before  ui 
through  the  twilight  of  primeval  history,  dim  and  indistinct,  but 
massive  and  majestic,  like  mountains  in  the  early  dawn. 

Instead,  however,  of  the  infinite  variety  and  restless  change 
"which  has  characterized  the  institutions  and  fortunes  of  Euro- 
pean states  ever  since  the  commencement  of  the  civilization  of 
our  continent,  a  monotonous  uniformity  pervades  the  liistories  of 


2i  CATTLE     OF     MASi-THON. 

nearly  all  Oriental  empires,  from  the  most  ancient  down  to  the 
most  recent  times.  They  are  characterized  by  the  rapidity  of 
their  early  conquests,  by  the  immense  extent  of  the  dominions 
comprised  in  them,  by  the  establishment  of  a  satrap  or  pashafl 
system  of  governing  the  provinces,  by  an  invariable  and  speedy 
degeneracy  in  the  princes  of  the  royal  house,  the  effeminate 
nurslings  of  the  seraglio  succeeding  to  the  warrior  sovereigns 
reared  in  the  camp,  and  by  the  internal  anarchy  and  insnrr'_c 
tions  which  indicate  and  accelerate  the  decline  and  fall  of  these 
unwieldy  and  ill-organized  fabrics  of  power.  It  is  also  a  strik 
ing  fact  that  the  governments  of  all  the  great  Asiatic  empires 
have  in  all  ages  been  absolute  despotisms.  And  Heeren  is  right 
in  connecting  this  v>ith  another  great  fact,  which  is  important 
from  its  influence  boih  on  the  political  and  the  social  life  of  Asi 
atics.  "  Among  all  the  considerable  nations  of  Inner  Asia,  the 
paternal  government  of  every  household  was  corrupted  by  polyg- 
amy :  where  that  custom  exists,  a  good  political  constitution  is 
impossible.  Fathers,  being  converted  into  domestic  despots,  are 
ready  to  pay  the  same  abject  obedience  to  their  sovereign  which 
they  exact  from  their  family  and  dependents  in  their  domestic 
economy."  We  should  bear  in  mind,  also,  the  inseparable  con- 
nection between  the  state  religion  and  all  legislation  which  has 
always  prevailed  in  the  East,  and  the  constant  existence  of  a 
powerful  sacerdotal  body,  exercising  some  check,  though  preca 
rlous  and  irregular,  over  the  throne  itself,  grasping  at  all  civil 
administration,  claiming  the  supreme  control  of  education,  stere- 
otyping the  lines  in  which  literature  and  science  must  move,  am] 
limiting  the  extent  to  which  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  humaa 
mind  to  prosecute  its  inquiries. 

With  these  general  characteristics  rightly  felt  and  understood, 
it  becomes  a  comparatively  easy  task  to  investigate  and  appre- 
ciate the  origin,  progress,  and  principles  of  Oriental  empires  in 
general,  as  well  as  of  the  Persian  monarchy  in  particular.  And 
we  are  thus  better  enabled  to  appreciate  the  repulse  which 
Greece  gave  to  the  arms  of  the  East,  and  to  judge  of  the  pioba 
ble  consequences  to  human  civilization,  if  the  Persians  had  suo 
ceeded  in  bringing  Europe  under  their  yoke,  as  they  had  already 
subjugated  the  fairest  portions  of  the  rest  of  the  then  known 
world. 

The  Greeks,  from  their  geographical  position,  formed  the  nat 


B  A  T  T  L  E     O  F     M  A  R  A  T  II  O  N.  'Z6 

ural  van-ga;ird  of  European  liberty  against  Persian  ambition; 
and  they  i)re-eminenlly  displayed  the  salient  points  of  distinctive 
national  character  which  have  rendered  European  civjiization  so 
far  superior  to  Asiatic.  The  nations  that  dwelt  in  ancient  times 
around  and  near  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
tvere  the  first  in  our  continent  to  receive  from  the  East  the  ru- 
diments of  art  and  literature,  and  the  germs  of  social  and  polit- 
ical organizations.  Of  these  nations  the  Greeks,  through  their 
vicinity  to  Asia  Minoi",  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt,  were  among  tiie 
very  foremost  in  acquiring  the  principles  and  habits  of  civilized 
hfe  ;  and  they  also  at  once  imparted  a  new  and  wholly  original 
stamp  on  all  which  they  received.  Thus,  in  their  i-eligion,  they 
received  from  foreign  settlers  the  names  of  all  their  deities  and 
many  of  their  rites,  but  they  discarded  the  loathsome  monstrosi- 
ties of  the  Nile,  the  Orontes,  and  the  Ganges  ;  they  Hcitionalized 
their  creed  ;  and  their  own  poets  created  their  beautiful  naythol- 
ogy.  No  sacerdotal  caste  ever  existed  in  Greece.  So,  in  the\ 
governments,  they  lived  long  under  hereditary  kings,  but  never 
endured  the  permanent  establishment  of  absolute  monarchy 
Their  early  kings  were  constitutional  rulers,  governing  with  de- 
fined prerogatives.*  And  long  before  the  Persian  invasion,  the 
kingly  form  of  government  had  given  way  in  almost  all  the 
Greek  states  to  republican  institutions,  presenting  infinite  varie- 
ties of  the  blending  or  the  alternate  predominance  of  the  oli- 
garchical and  democratical  principles,  [n  literature  and  science 
v.he  Greek  intellect  followed  no  beaten  track,  and  acknowledged 
no  limitary  rules.  The  Greeks  thougVit  their  subjects  boldly  out ; 
r  ud  the  novelty  of  a  speculation  invested  it  in  their  minds  with 
interest,  and  not  with  criminality.  Versatile,  restless,  enterpris- 
ing, and  self-confident,  the  Greeks  presented  the  most  striking 
contrast  to  the  habitual  quietude  and  submissiveness  of  the  Ori- 
entals ;  and,  of  all  the  Greeks,  the  Athenians  exhibited  these  na- 
tional characteristics  in  the  strongest  degree.  This  spirit  of  ac- 
tivity and  daring,  joined  to  a  generous  sympathy  for  the  fate  of 
Iheir  fellow-Greeks  in  Asia,  had  led  them  to  join  in  the  list 
Ionian  war;  and  now  mingling  with  their  abhorrence  of  the 
usurping  family  of  their  own  citizens,  which  for  a  period  had  for- 
cibly seized  on  and  exercised  despotic  power  at  Athens,  nerved 
t)iem  to  defy  the  wrath  of  King  Darius,  and  to  refuse  to  receive 
•  "Ettj  fitjToFi  yepaai  noTpiKal  ^aaLXelai. — Thtcyd    Ub.  i    sec.  12 

B 


<26  iATTLE     OF     MARATHON. 

back  at  his  bidding  the  tyrant  whom  they  had  aome  years  h» 
fore  driven  out. 

The  enterprise  and  genius  of  an  Englishman  have  lately  con- 
firmed by  fresh  evidence,  and  invested  with  fresh  interest,  the 
might  of  the  Persian  monarch  who  sent  his  troops  to  combat  a1 
Marathon.  Inscriptions  in  a  character  termed  the  Arrow-headod, 
or  Cuneiform,  had  long  been  known  to  exist  on  the  marble  mon- 
uments at  Persepolis,  near  the  site  of  the  ancient  Susa,  and  on 
the  faces  of  rocks  in  other  places  formerly  ruled  over  by  the  early 
Persian  kings.  But  for  thousands  of  years  they  had  been  mere 
unintelligible  enigmas  to  the  curious  but  baffled  beholder  ;  and 
they  were  often  referred  to  as  instances  of  the  folly  of  human 
pride,  which  could  indeed  write  its  own  praises  in  th^^  solid  rock, 
but  only  for  the  rock  to  outlive  the  language  as  well  as  the 
memory  of  the  vainglorious  inscribers.  The  elder  Niebuhr, 
Grotefend,  and  Lassen,  had  made  some  guesses  at  the  meaning 
of  the  Cuneiform  letters  ;  but  Major  Rawlinson,  of  the  East  In- 
dia Company's  service,  after  years  of  labor,  has  at  last  accom- 
plished the  glorious  achievement  of  fully  revealing  the  alphabet 
and  the  grammar  of  this  k»ng  unknown  tongue.  He  has,  in  par- 
ticular, fully  deciphered  and  expounded  the  inscription  on  tho 
sacred  rock  of  Behistun,  on  the  western  frontiers  of  Media. 
These  records  of  the  Acliffimenidtc  have  at  length  found  theii 
interpreter ;  and  Darius  himself  speaks  to  us  from  the  corise 
crated  mountain,  and  tells  us  the  names  of  the  nations  that  obey 
ed  him,  the  revolts  that  he  suppressed,  his  victories,  his  piety, 
and  his  glory.* 

Kings  who  thus  seek  the  admiration  of  posterity  are  little  likelj, 
M>  dim  the  record  of  their  successes  by  the  mention  of  their  oc- 
casional defeats ;  and  it  throws  no  suspicion  on  the  narrative  of 
the  Greek  historians  that  we  find  these  inscriptions  silent  respect- 
ing  the  overthrow  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  as  well  as  respect" 
ing  the  reverses  which  Darius  sustained  in  person  during  hij 
Scythian  campaigns.  But  these  indi&putable  monuments  of  Per- 
sian fame  confirm,  and  even  increase  the  opinion  with  which 
Herodotus  inspires  us  of  the  vast  power  which  Cyrus  founded  and 
Cambyses  increased  ;  which  Darius  augmented  by  Indian  and 
Arabian  conquests,  and  seemed  likely,  when  he  directed  his  arms 
against  Europe,  to  make  the  predominant  monarchy  of  the  world 
♦  See  the  tenth  volume  of  the  "Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  ' 


BATTLE     OF     MARATHON.  JS*"/ 

With  the  exception  of  the  Chinese  empire,  in  which,  through- 
nut  all  ages  down  to  the  last  few  years,  one  third  of  the  human 
race  has  dwelt  almost  unconnected  with  the  other  portions,  all 
the  great  kingdoms,  which  wc  know  to  have  existed  in  ancient 
Ae'in,  were,  in  Darius's  time,  blended  into  the  Persian.  The 
northern  Indians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Syrians,  the  Babylonians, 
llie  Clialdees,  the  Phoenicians,  the  nations  of  Palestine,  the  Ar- 
menians, the  Bactrians,  the  Lydians,  the  J  hrygians,  the  Parthians, 
and  the  Medes,  all  obeyed  the  sceptre  of  the  Great  King  :  the 
Medes  standing  next  to  the  native  Persians  in  honor,  and  the 
empire  being  frequently  spoken  of  as  that  of  the  Medes,  or  a?, 
that  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  Egypt  and  Cyrene  were  Per- 
sian provinces  ;  the  Greek  colonists  in  Asia  Minor  and  the  isl- 
ands of  the  JEgjean  were  Darius's  subjects  ;  and  their  gallant 
but  unsuccessful  attempts  to  throw  off  the  Persian  yoke  had  only 
served  to  rivet  it  more  strongly,  and  to  increase  the  general  be- 
hef  that  the  Greeks  could  not  stand  before  the  Persians  in  a  field 
of  battle.  Darius's  Scythian  war,  though  unsuccessful  in  its  im 
mediate  object,  had  brought  about  the  subjugation  of  Thrace  and 
the  submission  of  Macedonia.  From  the  Indus  to  the  Peneus,  all 
was  his. 

AYe  may  imagine  the  wTath  with  which  the  lord  of  so  many 
nations  must  have  heard,  nine  years  before  the  battle  of  Mara- 
thon, that  a  strange  nation  toward  the  setting  sun,  called  the 
Athenians,  had  dared  to  help  his  rebels  in  Ionia  against  him,  and 
that  they  had  plundered  and  burned  the  capital  of  one  of  his 
provinces.  Before  the  burning  of  Sardis,  Darius  seems  never  to 
have  heard  of  the  existence  of  Athens  ;  but  his  satraps  in  Asia 
Minor  had  for  some  time  seen,  Athenian  refugees  at  their  provin 
cial  courts  imploring  assistance  against  their  fellow-countrymen. 
When  Hippias  was  driven  away  from  Athens,  and  the  tyrannic 
dynasty  of  the  Pisistratidffi  finally  overthrown  in  510  B.C.,  the 
banished  tyrant  and  his  adherents,  after  vainly  seeking  to  be  r*!- 
storei  by  Spartan  intervention,  had  betaken  themselves  to  Sar 
dis.  the  capital  city  of  the  satrapy  of  Artaphernes.  There  Hip- 
pias (in  the  expressive  words  of  Herodotus*)  began  every  kind 
of  agitation,  slandering  the  Athenians  before  Artaphernes,  ?,nd 
doing  all  he  could  to  induce  the  satrap  to  place  Athens  in  sub- 
jeotion  to  him,  as  the  tributary  vassal  of  King  Darius.  Wlien 
•  Herod.,  lib   v.   c.  96 


as  BATTLE     OF     MARATHON. 

the  Athenians  heard  of  his  practices,  they  sent  envoys  to  feardia 
to  remonstrate  with  the  Persians  against  taking  up  the  q.iarreJ 
of  the  Athenian  refugees. 

But  Artaphernes  gave  them  in  reply  a  menacing  command  to 
receive  Hippias  hack  again  if  they  looked  for  safety.  The  Athe- 
nians were  resolved  not  to  purchase  safety  at  such  a  price,  and 
after  rejecting  the  satrap's  terms,  they  considered  that  they  and 
the  Persians  were  declared  enemies.  At  this  very  crisis  the  Io- 
nian Greeks  implored  the  assistance  of  their  European  brethren,  tc 
enable  them  to  recover  their  ir.dependence  from  Persia.  Atheuf , 
and  the  city  of  Eretria  in  Euboea,  alone  consented.  Twenty 
Athenian  galleys,  and  five  Eretrian,  crossed  the  JEgBean  Sea,  ai  d 
by  a  bold  and  sudden  march  upon  Sardis,  the  Athenians  and 
their  allies  succeeded  in  capturing  the  capital  city  of  the  haugh 
ty  satrap,  who  had  recently  menaced  them  with  servitude  or  de- 
struction. They  were  pursued,  and  defeated  on  their  return  to 
the  coast,  and  Athens  took  no  further  part  in  the  Ionian  war  ; 
but  the  insult  that  she  had  put  upon  the  Persian  power  was 
speedily  made  known  throughout  that  empire,  and  was  never  to 
be  forgiven  or  forgotten.  In  the  emphatic  simplicity  of  the  nar- 
rative of  Heiodotus,  the  wrath  of  the  Great  King  is  thus  de- 
scribed :  "  Now  when  it  was  told  to  King  Darius  that  Sardis  had 
been  taken  and  burned  by  the  Athenians  and  lonians,  he  took 
small  heed  of  the  loniaus,  well  knowing  who  they  were,  and  that 
tlieir  revolt  would  soon  be  put  down  ;  but  he  asked  who,  and 
\\  hat  manner  of  men,  the  Athenians  were.  And  when  he  had 
teen  told,  he  «alled  for  his  bow  ;  and,  having  taken  it,  and  placed 
ri'a  ariow  on  the  string,  he  let  the  arrow  fly  toward  heaven ;  and 
a.s  he  shot  it  into  the  air,  he  said,  '  Oh  !  supreme  God,  grant  me 
that  I  may  avenge  myself  on  the  Athenians.'  And  whv.n  he  ha  J 
eaid  this,  he  appointed  one  of  his  servants  to  say  to  him  eveJ"y 
•lay  as  he  sat  at  meat,  '  Sire,  remember  the  Athenians.'  " 

Some  years  were  occupied  in  the  complete  reduction  of  Ionia. 
But  when  this  was  edecied,  Darius  ordered  his  victorious  forces 
to  proceed  to  punish  Athens  and  Eretria,  and  to  conquer  Eurc- 
p3an  Greece.  The' first  armament  sent  for  this  purpose  wae 
«hattered  by  shipwreck,  and  nearly  destroyed  off  Mount  Athos. 
But  the  purpose  of  King  Darius  was  not  easily  shaken.  A  larger 
army  was  onlered  to  be  collected  in  Cilicia,  and  requisitions  were 
Mnt  W  all  the  mar'time  cities  r^  die  Persian  empire  for  ships  of 


BATTL'E     OF     MAR4THON.  2J 

war,  and  for  transports  of  sulTicient  size  for  carrying  cavalry  as 
well  as  infuntry  across  the  Mga-.im.  Wliiio  these  preparaticius 
were  being  made,  Darius  sent  heralds  round  to  the  Grecian  cities 
demanding  their  submission  to  Persia.  It  was  proclaimed  in  the 
market-place  of  each  little  Hellenic  state  (some  with  teriilories 
not  larger  than  the  Isle  of  Wight),  that  King  Darius,  the  lord 
Df  all  men,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,*  required  earth 
an:l  water  to  be  delivered  to  his  heralds,  as  a  symbolical  ac- 
kiK  wJedgment  that  he  was  head  and  master  of  the  country. 
Terror-stricken  at  the  power  of  Persia  and  at  the  severe  punish- 
ment that  had  recently  been  inflicted  on  the  refractory  lonians, 
many  of  the  continental  Greeks  and  nearly  all  the  islanders  sub- 
mitted, and  gave  the  required  tokens  of  vassalage.  At  Sparta 
and  Athens  an  indignant  refusal  was  returned — a  refusal  which 
was  disgraced  by  outrage  and  violence  against  the  persons  of  the 
Asiatic  heralds. 

Fresh  fuel  was  thus  added  to  the  anger  of  Darius  against  Ath- 
ens, and  the  Persian  preparations  went  on  with  renewed  vigor. 
In  the  summer  of  490  B.C.,  the  army  destined  for  the  invasion 
was  assembled  in  the  Aleian  plain  of  Cilicia,  near  the  sea.  A 
fleet  of  six  hundred  galleys  and  numerous  transports  was  collect- 
ed on  the  coast  for  the  embarkation  of  troops,  horse  as  well  as 
foot.  A  Median  general  named  Datis,  and  Artaphernes,  the  son 
of  the  satrap  of  Sardis,  and  who  was  also  nephew  of  Darius, 
were  placed  in  titular  joint  command  of  the  expedition.  Thu 
real  supreme  authority  was  probably  given  to  Datis  alone,  iron 
the  way  in  which  the  Greek  writers  speak  of  him.  We  ;.inow 
no  details  of  the  previous  career  of  this  officer ;  but  there  is  ev- 
ery reason  to  believe  that  his  al)ilitie8  and  bravery  had  beer. 
pro^  ed  by  experience,  or  his  Median  birth  would  have  pre'v  onted 
his  being  placed  in  high  command  by  Darius.  He  appiars  tc 
have  been  the  first  Mode  who  was  thus  trusted  by  the  I/rsiat 
kings  after  the  overthrow  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Median  magi 

•  .^schines  in  Ctes.,  p.  .522,  ed.  Ileiske.  Miifoid.  vol.  i  ,  p.  485.  /Es- 
chines  is  speaking  of  Xerxes,  Iml  Miifonl  is  probably  right  in  cuny  Jeririg- 
it  ;:s  ihe  style  of  the  Persian  kinffs  in  their  proclaniaiiins.  In  on-  .if  tie 
insnriptiuns  at  Persepulis.  Darius  terms  himself'-  Darius,  the  grir^\  king, 
king  of  kings,  the  king  of  the  many-penpleil  countries,  the  suppor'er  iijsi; 
of  this  great  worlil."  In  another,  he  styles  himself  "the  king  of  all  in- 
habited countries."  (See  "Asiatic  Journal,"  vol.  x.,  p.  287  and  :i92,  and 
Major  Rawlinson's  Comments.) 


30  EATTLEOF     MARAT HON 

against  the  Persians  immedialelj'  before  Darius  obtained  tht. 
throne.  Diitis  received  iustructions  to  complete  the  subjugation 
of  Greece,  and  especial  orders  were  given  him  with  regard  to 
Eretria  and  Athens.  He  Avas  to  take  these  two  cities,  and  he 
was  to  lead  the  inhabitants  away  captive,  and  bring  them  as 
slaves  into  the  presence  of  the  Great  King. 

Datis  embarked  his  forces  in  the  fleet  that  awaited  them,  and 
coasting  along  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  till  he  was  off  Samos,  he 
thence  sailed  due  westward  through  the  JEgsean  Sea  for  Greece, 
taking  the  islands  in  his  way.  The  Naxians  had,  ten  years  be- 
fore, successfully  stood  a  siege  against  a  Persian  armament,  but 
they  now  were  too  terrified  to  offer  any  resistance,  and  fled  to 
the  mountain  tops,  while  the  enemy  burned  their  town  and  laid 
waste  their  lands.  Thence  Datis,  compelling  the  Greek  island- 
ers to  join  him  with  their  ships  and  men,  sailed  onward  to  iht 
coast  of  Euboea.  The  little  town  of  Carystus  essayed  resislance, 
but  was  quickly  overpowered.  He  next  attacked  Eretria.  The 
Athenians  sent  four  thousand  men  to  its  aid  ;  but  treachery  was 
at  work  among  the  Eretrians ;  and  the  Athenian  force  received 
timely  warning  from  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  city  to  retire 
to  aid  in  saving  their  own  country,  instead  of  remaining  to  share 
in  the  inevitable  destruction  of  Eretria.  Left  to  themselves,  the 
Eretrians  repulsed  the  assaults  of  the  Persians  against  their  walls 
for  six  days  ;  on  the  seventh  they  were  betrayed  by  two  of  their 
chiefs,  and  the  Persians  occupied  the  city.  The  temples  were 
burned  in  revenge  for  the  firing  of  Sardis,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  bound,  and  placed  as  prisoners  in  the  neighboring  islet  of 
^gilia,  to  wait  there  till  Datis  should  bring  the  Athenians  to 
join  them  in  captivity,  when  both  populations  were  to  bi  led 
into  Upper  Asia,  there  to  learn  their  doom  from  the  lips  of  King 
Darius  himself. 

Flushed  with  success,  and  with  half  his  mission  thus  atcom- 
Dlislied,  Datis  re-embarked  his  troops,  and,  crossing  the  little 
channel  that  separates  Euboea  f  lom  the  main  land,  he  encamped 
his  troops  on  the  Attic  coast  at  Marathon,  drawing  up  his  gal- 
leys on  the  sh  jiving  beach,  as  was  the  custom  with  the  navies 
cf  antiquity  The  conquered  islands  behind  him  ser</^ed  as 
places  of  de]<osit  for  his  provisions  and  military  stores.  His  po- 
silioN  at  Maralhon  seemed  to  him  in  every  respect  advantageous, 
and  the  level  nature  of  the  ground  on  which  he  camped  wat 


BATTLE     OF     MARATHON.  31 

favorable  fci  the  einploymeiit  of  hi&  cavalry,  if  the  Alheiiiaiia 
•(iiould  venture  to  ougagc  him.  Hippias,  w'ho  a«;compaiiJed  him, 
and  acted  as  the  guide  of  the  invaders,  had  pointed  out  Mara- 
thon as  the  best  place  for  a  landing,  for  this  very  reason.  Prob- 
ably Hippias  was  also  influenced  by  the  recollection  that  forty- 
seven  years  previously,  he,  with  his  father  Pisistratu?,  had  cross- 
ed Avith  an  army  from  Eretria  to  Marathon,  and  had  won  an 
easy  victory  over  their  Athenian  enemies  on  that  very  plain, 
which  had  restored  them  to  tyrannic  power.  The  omen  seemed 
clieeriug.  The  place  was  the  same  ;  but  Hippias  soon  learned 
to  his  cost  how  great  a  change  had  come  over  the  spirit  oi"  the 
Athenians. 

But  though  "the  fierce  democracy"  of  Athens  was  zealous 
and  true  against  foreign  invader  and  domestic  tyrant,  a  faction 
existed  in  Athens,  as  at  Eretria,  who  were  willing  to  purchase 
a  party  triumph  over  their  fellow-citizens  at  the  price  of  their 
country's  ruin.  Communications  were  opened  between  these 
men  and  the  Persian  camp,  which  would  have  led  to  a  catas- 
trophe like  that  of  Eretria,  if  Miltiades  had  not  resolved  and 
persuaded  his  colleagues  to  resolve  on  fighting  at  all  hazards. 

When  Miltiades  arrayed  his  men  for  action,  he  staked  on  the 
arbitrament  of  one  battle  not  only  the  fate  of  Athens,  but  that 
of  all  Gref^ce  ;  for  if  Athens  had  fallen,  no  other  Greek  state, 
except  Laf'.edajmon,  would  have  had  the  courage  to  resist ;  and 
the  Lacedaemonians,  though  they  would  probably  have  died  in 
tlieir  ranks  to  the  last  man,  never  could  have  successfully  resist- 
ed the  victorious  Persians  and  the  numerous  Greek  troops  which 
would  have  soon  marched  under  the  Persian  satraps,  had  they 
prevailed  over  Athens. 

Nor  was  there  any  power  to  the  westward  of  Greece  that 
could  have  oflered  an  efl'ectual  opposition  to  Persia,  had  she  once 
I'ouquered  Greece,  and  made  that  country  a  basis  for  future  mil- 
itary operations.  Rome  was  at  this  time  in  her  season  of  ut- 
most weakness.  Her  dynasty  of  powerful  Etruscan  kings  had 
been  driven  out ;  and  her  infant  commonwealth  was  reeling  un- 
der ihc  attacks  of  the  Etruscans  and  Volscians  from  without, 
and  the  fierce  dissensions  between  the  patricians  and  plebeians 
within.  Etruria,  with  her  Lucumos  and  serfs,  Avas  no  match 
Jor  Periia  Samnium  had  not  grown  into  the  might  which  sh* 
afterward  put  forth;   nor  could  the  Greek   cn\  nies  in  South  It- 


32  :i  A  rTLE     OF     MAE  ATIION. 

aly  and  Sicily  hope  to  conqvier  when  their  parent  states  h.itl  {»t< 
ished.  Carthage  had  escaped  the  Persian  yoke  in  the  time  oi 
Cambyses,  through  the  rekictance  of  tlie  Phrrnician  mariners  to 
serve  against  their  kinsmen.  But  such  forbearance  could  not 
long  have  been  relied  on,  and  the  future  rival  of  Rome  would 
have  become  as  submissive  a  minister  of  the  Persian  power  as 
were  the  Phceniiian  cities  themselves.  If  we  turn  to  Spain;  or 
if  we  pass  the  great  mountain  chain,  which,  prolonged  through 
the  Pyrenees,  the  Cevennes,  the  Alps,  and  tl>e  Balkan,  divides 
Northern  from  Southern  Europe,  we  shall  find  nothing  at  that 
period  but  mere  sa-^  age  Finns,  Celts,  Slaves,  and  Teutons.  Had 
Persia  beaten  Athens  at  Marathon,  she  could  have  found  no  ob- 
stacle to  prevent  Darius,  the  chosen  servant  of  Orrnuzd,  from 
advancing  his  sway  over  all  the  known  Western  races  of  man- 
kind./XThe  infant  energies  of  Europe  would  have  been  trodden 
out  beneath  universal  conquest,  and  the  history  of  the  world, 
Jke  the  history  of  Asia,  have  become  a  mere  record  of  the  rise 
and  fall  of  despotic  dynasties,  of  the  incursions  of  barbarouf 
hordes,  and  of  the  mental  and  political  prostration  of  millioni 
beneath  the  diadem,  the  tiara,  and  the  sword.  [^ 

Great  as  the  preponderance  of  the  Persian  over  the  Athenian 
power  at  that  crisis  seems  to  have  been,  it  would  be  unjust  to 
impute  A^ild  rashness  to  the  policy  of  Miltiades,  and  those  who 
voted  with  him  in  the  Athenian  council  of  war,  or  to  look  on 
the  after-current  of  events  as  the  mere  fortunate  result  of  suc- 
cessful folly.  As  before  has  been  remarked,  Miltiades,  while 
prince  of  the  Chersonese,  had  seen  service  in  the  Persian  armies; 
and  he  knew  by  personal  observation  how  many  elements  of 
weakness  lurked  beneath  their  imposing  aspect  of  strength.  He 
knew  that  the  bulk  of  their  troops  no  longer  consisted  of  the 
hardy  shepherds  and  mountaineers  from  Persia  Proper  and  Kur- 
distan, who  won  Cyrus's  battles;  but  that  unwilling  contingents 
from  conquered  nations  now  filled  up  the  Persian  muster-rolls, 
fighting  more  from  compulsion  than  from  any  zeal  in  the  causa 
of  their  masters.  He  had  also  the  sagacity  and  the  spirit  to 
appreciate  the  superiority  of  the  Greek  armor  anl  organizalion 
over  the  Asiatic,  notwithstanding  former  reverses.  Above  all  he 
felt  and  worthily  trusted  the  enthusiasm  of  those  '.vhoin  he  led. 

The  Atheuians  whom  he  led  had  proved  by  their  new-horu  va) 
W  '0  recent  wars  ag'iinst  the  neighboring  slates  that  "  liberty  am 


BATTLE     OF     MARATHON  33 

equality  of  civic  rights  are  brave  spirit-stirring  things  ,  and  they 
who,  while  under  the  yoke  oi"  a  despot,  had  been  no  better  nieu 
?f  war  than  any  of  their  neighbors,  as  soon  as  they  were  free 
bet  aine  the  foremost  men  of  all ;  lor  each  felt  that  in  fighting 
for  a  free  commonwealth,  he  fought  for  himself,  and  whatever 
he  took  in  hand,  he  was  zealous  to  do  the  work  thoroughly."  Sc 
(ho  nearly  contemporaneous  historian  describes  the  change  of 
tpirit  that  was  seen  in  the  Athenians  alter  their  tyrants  were 
expelled;*  and  Miltiades  knew  that  in  leading  them  against 
the  invading  army,  where  they  had  Hippias,  the  foe  they  most 
hated,  before  them,  he  was  bringing  into  battle  no  ordinary  men, 
and  could  calculate  on  no  ordinary  heroism.  As  for  traitors,  he 
was  sure,  that  whatever  treachery  might  lurk  among  some  of  the 
highei'-born  and  wealthier  Athenians,  the  rank  and  file  whom 
he  commanded  were  ready  to  do  their  utmost  in  his  and  their 
own  cause.  With  regard  to  future  attacks  from  Asia,  he  might 
reasonably  hope  that  one  victory  would  inspirit  all  Greece  to  com- 
bine against  the  common  foe  ;  and  that  the  latent  seeds  of  revolt 
and  disunion  in  the  Persian  empire  would  soon  burst  forth  and 
paralyze  its  energies,  so  as  to  leave  Greek  independence  secure 
With  these  hopes  and  risks,  Miltiades,  on  the  afternoon  of  a 
September  day,  490  B.C.,  gave  the  word  for  the  Athenian  army 
to  prepare  for  battle.  There  were  many  local  associations  con- 
nected with  those  mountain  heights  which  were  calculated  pow- 
erfully to  excite  the  spirits  of  the  men,  and  of  which  the  com 
manders  well  knew  how  to  avail  themselves  in  their  exhorta- 
tions to  their  troops  before  the  encounter.     Marathon  itself  was 

*  'AOijvutot  jiiv  vvv  r]v^i]vro-  drj^.oi  de  oil  Kar'  ev  fiovov  (Mitt  TiavTa\r/  q 
'laijyopit]  (Jf  ia-i  XPW^^  a:Tnv6aiov,  ei  Kai  'Aflrjvnlui  rvfjavvevofXEVoi  /ikv  (iV(]a- 
fiov  Tuv  aipsa^  nefuoiKsovruv  eaav  ra  nuXi^ia  ufieivovc,  una/i.AuxdEi'Te^  de  rv- 
(luvvuv  fiOK^u  TVjjuiToi  kyivovxo-  6ij7^ol  uv  ravra  on  Karexofievoi  /uev  ideXoKtl 
k:ov,  jf  dtaTTOTTj  epya^ofiEvof  cT^evdepudivTuv  (5e  avro^  inaoTog  iuvrt^  npodv- 
ufiTo  Karepyui^eadaL. — Herod.,  lib.  v..  c.  87. 

Mr.  Groie"s  comment  on  this  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  pniJosoph 
tCal  passages  in  his  admirable  fourth  volume. 

The  expression  'laijynpij]  xpwo-  anovdaiw  is  like  some  hnes  in  f!.d  Bai 
l»cy '8  i>03m  of  "  The  Bruce  :" 

"Ah,  Fredome  is  a  noble  thing; 
Fredome  makes  man  to  hailTlyking 
Fredome  all  solace  tu  men  gives, 
He  lives  at  ease  that  freely  lives  ' 
B? 


54  BATTLE     OF     MARATHOI*. 

a  region  sacred  to  Hercules.  Close  to  them  was  the  fountain  0/ 
Macaria,  who  had  in  days  of  yore  devoted  herseli"  to  death  Ibi 
the  hberty  of  her  people.  The  very  plain  on  -which  they  were 
to  fight  w.is  the  scene  of  the  exploits  of  their  national  hero,  The- 
Bcus  ;  and  there,  too,  as  old  legends  told,  the  Athenians  and  the 
Herachdai  had  routed  the  invader,  Eurystheus.  These  traditions 
were  not  mere  cloudy  myths  or  idle  fictions,  but  matters  of  ira- 
piieit  earnest  faith  to  the  men  of  that  day,  and  many  a  fervent 
prayer  arose  from  the  Athenian  ranks  to  the  heroic  spirits  who, 
while  on  earth,  had  striven  and  suffered  on  that  very  spot,  and 
who  were  heUeved  to  he  now  heavenly  powers,  looking  down 
with  interest  on  their  still  beloved  country,  and  capable  of  inter- 
|iosing  with  superhuman  aid  in  its  behalf. 

According  to  old  national  custom,  the  warriors  of  each  tribe 
were  arrayed  together  ;  neighbor  thus  fighting  by  the  side  of 
neighbor,  friend  by  friend,  and  the  spirit  of  emulation  and  the 
consciousness  of  responsibility  excited  to  the  very  utmost.  The 
V^ar-ruler,  Callimachus,  had  the  leading  of  the  right  wing;  the 
Platicans  formed  the  extreme  left ;  and  Themistocles  and  Aristi 
des  commanded  the  centre.  The  hne  consisted  of  the  heavy 
armed  spearmen  only  ;  for  the  Greeks  (until  the  time  of  Iphi 
crates)  took  little  or  no  account  of  light-armed  soldiers  in  a . 
pitched  battle,  using  them  only  in  skirmishes,  or  for  the  pursuit 
of  a  defeated  enemy.  The  panoply  of  the  regular  infantry  con 
sisted-  of  a  long  spear,  of  a  shield,  helmet,  breast-plate,  greaves, 
and  short  sword.  Thus  equipped,  they  usually  advanced  slowly 
and  steadily  into  action  in  a  uniform  phalanx  of  about  eight  spears 
deep.  But  the  military  genius  of  Miltiadcs  led  him  to  deviate 
on  this  occasion  from  the  commonplace  tactics  of  his  country- 
\  men.  It  was  essential  for  him  to  extend  his  line  so  as  to  cover 
1  all  the  practicable  ground,  and  to  secure  himself  from  being  out- 
I  flanked  and  charged  in  the  rear  by  the  Persian  horse.  This  (;x- 
I  tension  'nvolved  the  weakening  of  his  line.  Instead  of  a  unilbrra 
rfdu-'tion  of  n.s  strength,  he  determined  on  detaching  principally 
from  his  'jentre,  which,  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  would 
havfc  the  best  opportunities  for  rallying,  if  broken  ;  and  on 
Btrengthaning  his  wings  so  as  to  insure  advantage  at  those  points ; 
an  1  he  trusted  to  his  own  skill  and  to  his  soldiers'  dlscipliue  for 
ih'^  inipiovcment  of  that  advantage  into  decisive  victory.*' 
•  It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  no  other  instance  of  a  Greek  general 


BATTi.EOFMAR.aTHON  ^6 

III  this  order,  and  availing  hiinscll'  probably  of  the  inequalities 
of  the  ground,  so  as  to  conceal  his  preparations  from  the  enemy 
till  the  last  possible  moment,  Miltiades  drew  up  the  eleven  thou- 
Band  infautr}'  wliose  spears  were  to  decide  this  crisis  in  the  strug- 
gle between  the  European  and  the  Asiatic  worlds.  The  sacri 
fices  by  whicli  the  favor  of  heaven  was  sought,  and  its  will  con- 
Bulted,  were  announced  to  show  propitious  omens.  The  trumpet 
founded  for  action,  and,  chanting  the  hymn  of  battle,  the  little 
army  bore  down  upon  the  host  of  the  foe.  Then,  too,  along  tho 
mountain  slopes  of  Marathon  must  have  resounded  the  mutual 
exhortation,  which  ^Eschylus,  who  fought  in  both  battles,  tells 
us  was  afterward  heard  over  the  waves  of  Salamis  :  "  On,  sons 
of  the  G  reeks  I  Strike  for  the  freedom  of  your  country  I  strike 
for  the  freedom  of  your  children  and  of  your  wives  —  for  the 
shrines  of  your  fathers'  gods,  and  for  the  sepulchres  of  your  sirea 
All — all  are  now  staked  upon  the  strife." 

'i2  Trainee  'E/lA^iwv,  Its 
'F.'^evdepovre  -n-aTpld',  eTievdepovTe  6e 
Uai6ac,  yiwaiKac,  Qecjv  re  narpuDv  IrJj;, 
Ofjuac  re  npoyovuv.     Nvv  virep  •ku.vtoiv  ayCiv* 

Instead  of  advancing  at  the  usual  slow  pace  of  the  phalanx 
Miltiades  brought  his  men  on  at  a  run.  They  were  all  trained 
in  the  exercises  of  the  palaestra,  so  that  there  was  no  fear  of  their 
ending  the  charge  in  breathless  exhaustion  ;  and  it  was  of  the 
deepest  importance  for  him  to  traverse  as  rapidly  as  possible  the 
mile  or  so  of  level  ground  that  lay  between  the  mountain  foot 
and  the  Persian  outposts,  and  so  to  get  his  troops  into  close  action 
before  the  Asiatic  cavalry  could  mount,  form,  and  maneuver 
against  him,  or  their  archers  keep  him  long  under  fire,  and  be- 
fore the  enemy's  generals  could  fairly  deploy  their  masses. 
.  "  When  the  Persians,"  says  Herodotus,  "  saw  the  Athenians 
running  down  on  them,  without  horse  or  bowmen,  and  scanty  in 
numbers,  they  thought  them  a  set  of  madmen  rushing  upon  cer 

deviating  from  the  ordinary  mode  of  bringing  a  phalanx  of  spearmen  into 
action  until  the  battles  of  Leuctra  and  Mantinea,  more  than  a  century 
after  Marathon,  v.hen  Epaininondas  introduccil  the  tactics  which  Alcx- 
ar.der  the  Great  in  ancient  times,  and  Frederic  llie  Great  in  modern  tmies, 
made  so  fanrotis,  of  concentrating  an  overpowering  force  to  bear  on  smne 
decisive  point  of  the  enemy's  line,  while  he  kept  back,  or,  in  militar) 
phrase,  refused  the  weaker  part  of  his  own  •«  Persae,"  408 


36  Battle   OF    MARATHON. 

tain  destruction."  Tlaey  began,  however,  to  prepare  to  receiVB 
them,  and  the  Eastern  chiefs  arrayed,  as  quickly  as  time  and 
place  allowed,  the  varied  races  who  served  in  their  motley  ranks 
Mountaineers  from  Hyrcania  and  Afghanistan,  wild  horsemen 
from  the  steppes  of  Khorassan,  the  black  archers  of  Ethiopia, 
swordsmen  from  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  the  Oxus,  the  Euplira- 
tes,  and  the  Nile,  made  ready  against  the  enemies  of  the  Grpat 
King,  But  no  national  cause  inspired  them  except  the  division 
of  native  Persians  ;  and  in  the  large  host  there  was  no  uniformity 
of  language,  creed,  race,  or  military  system.  Still,  among  thera 
there  were  many  gallant  men,  under  a  veteran  general ;  they 
'were  familiarized  with  victory,  and  in  contemptuous  confidence, 
their  infantry,  which  alone  had  time  to  form,  awaited  the  Athe- 
nian charge.  On  came  the  Greeks,  with  one  unwavering  line  of 
leveled  spears,  against  which  the  light  targets,  the  short  lancf^s 
and  cimeters  of  the  Orientals,  offered  weak  defense.  The  front 
rank  of  the  Asiatics  must  have  gone  down  to  a  man  at  the  first 
shock.  Still  they  recoiled  not,  but  strove  by  individual  gallantry 
and  by  the  weight  of  immbers  to  make  up  for  the  disadvantages 
of  weapons  and  tactics,  and  to  bear  back  the  shallow  line  of  the 
Europeans.  In  the  centre,  where  the  native  Persians  and  thf 
^acae  fought,  they  succeeded  in  breaking  through  the  weakened 
part  of  the  Athenian  phalanx  ;  and  the  tribes  led  by  Aristides 
and  Theniistocles  were,  after  a  brave  resistance,  driven  back  ovei 
the  plain,  and  chased  by  the  Persians  up  the  valley  toward  the 
inner  country.  There  the  nature  of  the  ground  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity of  rallying  and  renewing  the  struggle.  Meanwhile,  the 
Greek  wings,  where  Miltiades  had  concentrated  his  chief  strength, 
had  routed  the  Asiatics  opposed  to  them  ;  and  the  Athenian  and 
Platcean  officers,  instead  of  pursuing  the  fugitives,  kept  their  troopii 
•well  in  hand,  and,  wheeling  round,  they  formed  the  tAVO  wings  to- 
gether. Miltiades  instantly  led  them  against  the  Persian  centre, 
A\hich  had  hitherto  been  triumphant,  but  which  new  fell  back, 
and  prcjnred  to  encounter  these  new  and  unexpected  assailants 
Ariel  ides  and  Themistocles  renewed  the  fight  with  their  reorgan- 
ized troops,  and  the  full  force  of  the  Greeks  was  brought  nitc 
ck  se  action  with  the  Persian  and  Sacian  divisions  of  the  enemy 
Dalis's  veterans  strove  hard  to  keep  their  ground,  and  evening* 
was  approaching  before  the  stern  encounter  was  decided. 
•  'A^'  6/iwf  aiTcnofieada  ^vv  deolq  Trpof  ianifg.  — .Aristoph.,  Vcsft.  lOcJ* 


BATTLE     OF     MARATHON.  37 

But  the  Persians,  with  their  slight  wicker  shields,  destitute  <»< 
body-armor,  and  never  taught  by  training  to  keep  the  even  iron? 
and  act  with  the  regular  movement  of  the  Greek  infantry,  fought 
at  heavy  disadvantage  with  their  shorter  and  feebler  weapons 
against  the  compact  array  of  wcii-arrned  Athenian  and  Platyan 
spoarmen,  all  perfectly  drilled  to  peribrm  each  necessary  evolu 
'.iou  in  concert,  and  to  preserve  a  uniform  and  unwavering  line 
J\  battle.  In  personal  courage  and  in  bodily  activity  the  Per- 
sians W(!re  not  interior  to  their  adversaries.  Their  spirits  were 
liot  yet  cowed  by  the  recollection  of  former  defeats  ;  and  they 
lavished  their  lives  freely,  rather  than  forfeit  the  fame  which 
they  had  won  by  so  many  victories.  .  While  their  rear  ranks 
poured  an  incessant  shower  of  arrows*  over  the  heads  of  their 
comrades,  the  foremost  Persians  kept  rushing  forward,  sometimes 
singly,  sometimes  in  desperate  groups  of  twelve  or  ten  upon  the 
projecting  spears  of  the  Greeks,  striving  to  force  a  lane  into  the 
phalanx,  and  to  bring  their  cimeters  and  daggers  into  play.f  Bot 
the  Greeks  felt  their  superiority,  and  though  the  fatigue  of  the 
long-continued  action  told  heavily  on  their  inferior  numbers,  the 
sight  of  the  carnage  that  they  dealt  upon  their  assailants  nerve! 
them  to  fight  still  more  fiercely  on. 

At  last  the  previously  unvanquished  lords  of  Asia  turned  theil- 
backs  and  fled,  and  the  Greeks  followed,  striking  them  down,  to 
the  water's  edge, J  where  the  invaders  were  now  hastily  launch 
ing  their  galleys,  and  seeking  to  embark  and  fly.      Flushed  witL 

*  'E/iaxofiEod'  avTo^c",  du/nov  o^ivTjv  Trf-u/coTef, 

Sruf  uiTjp  nap'  avdp    't'  opyTJg  tt/v  xt/ivvTiv  iadluv 
'Ytto  6e  T<^p  TO^EVjiuTiov  ovt  vt>  ideiv  tov  ovpavov. 

Aristoph.,  Vesper,  1082. 
t  See  the  description  in  the  62(1  section  o'  tiie  nintii  book  of  Herodotus 
of  the  gallantry  shown  by  the  Persian  infantr)  ajfaiust  the  Lacedasiiioni- 
ans  at  Plala»a.  We  have  no  similar  detail  of  the  i\a\\\  at  Marathon,  but 
wo  know  'hat  it  was  long  and  obstinately  contested  (see  tht  113lh  section 
of  ine  siy.lh  book  of  Herodotus,  and  the  lines  from  the  Vespa^  already 
r,\nccd).  and  the  spirit  of  the  Persians  must  have  been  even  highe»  at  Mar- 
atbin  lh«n  at  Piataia.  In  both  battles  it  wac  only  the  true  Pers  ani  aad 
Ibe  Sacae  *ho  thowed  this  valor:  the  other  Asiatics  fled  like  sheep 
t  The  flying  Mede,  his  shafiless  broken  bow  ; 

The  fiery  Greek,  his  red  pursuing  spear; 
Mountains  above.  Earth's,  Ocean's  plain  below, 
Death  in  the  front.  Destruction  in  the  rear! 
Such  was  the  scene. — Byron's  Childe  Harold. 

"1" 


T 


38  CATTLE     OF     MARATHON. 

success,  the  Atlienians  attacked  and  strove  to  fire  the  flt.ut.  But 
here  the  Asiatics  resisted  desperately,  and  the  principal  loss  sus- 
tained oy  the  Greeks  was  in  the  assault  on  the  ships.  Here  fell 
che  biave  War-ruler  Callimachus,  the  general  Stesilaus,  and 
other  Athenians  of  note.  Seven  galleys  were  fired  ;  but  the  Per- 
sians succeeded  in  saving  the  rest.  They  pushed  oft'  from  the 
fatal  shore  ;  but  even  here  the  skill  of  Datis  did  not  desert  him, 
and  he  sailed  round  to  the  vi'estern  coast  of  Attica,  in  hopes  to 
find  the  city  unprotected,  and  to  gain  possession  of  it  from  some 
of  the  partisans  of  Hippias.  Miltiades,  however,  saw  and  coun- 
teracted his  maneuver.  Leaving  Aristides,  and  the  troops  of  his 
tribe,  to  guard  the  spoil  and  the  slain,  the  Athenian  commander 
led  his  conquering  army  by  a  rapid  night-march  back  across  the 
country  +o  Athens.  And  when  the  Persian  fleet  had  doubled  the 
Cape  of  Sunium  and  sailed  up  to  the  Athenian  harbor  in  the 
morning,  Datis  saw  arrayed  on  the  heights  above  the  city  the 
troops  before  whom  his  men  had  fled  on  the  precedipg  evening. 
All  hope  of  further  conquest  in  Europe  for  the  time  was  aban- 
doned, and  the  baffled  armada  returned  to  the  Asiatic,  coasts 

After  the  battle  had  been  fought,  but  while  the  dead  bodies 
were  yet  on  the  ground,  the  promised  re-enforcement  fmm  Sparta 
arrived.  Tm^o  thousand  Lacedsemonian  spearmen,  starting  im- 
mediately after  the  full  moon,  had  marched  the  hundreci  and  fifty 
miles  between  Athens  and  Sparta  in  the  wonderfully  short  time 
of  three  days.  Though  too  late  to  share  in  the  glory  oi  the  ac- 
tion, they  requested  to  be  allowed  to  march  to  the  battle-field  to 
behold  the  Medes.  They  proceeded  thither,  gazed  on  the  dead 
bodies  of  the  invaders,  and  then,  praising  the  Athenians  and 
what  they  had  done,  they  returned  to  Lacedaimon. 

The  number  of  the  Persian  dead  was  6400  ;  of  the  Athenians, 
192.  The  number  of  the  Platteans  who  fell  is  not  mentioned  ; 
but,  as  they  fought  in  the  part  of  the  army  which  was  not  broken, 
it  can  not  have  been  large. 

Tilt  apparent  disproportion  between  the  losses  of  the  two  arm- 
ies iti  not  surprising  when  we  remember  the  armor  of  tlie  Greek 
spearmen,  and  the  iriipossibility  of  heavy  slaughter  being  inflict- 
ed by  sword  or  lance  on  troops  so  armed,  as  long  as  they  kept 
Hrm  in  th^ir  ranks.* 

•  Milford  well  icfeis  to  Ciecy,  Poictiers,  and  Agincourt  as  inslince* 
»f  Bimilai  disparity  of  loss  between  the  conquerors  and  the    on-juered 


BATTLE     OF     M  A  K  A  T  H  O  N.  39 

The  Athenian  slain  were  buried  on  tlio  field  of  battle.  This 
(\a.s  coiitrarj  to  llie  usual  custom,  according  to  whicli  th(  bones 
of  all  who  fell  fighting  for  their  country  in  each  year  wt  re  de- 
posited in  a  public  sepulchre  in  the  suburb  of  Athens  called  the 
Cerameicus.  But  it  was  felt  that  a  distinction  ought  to  be  made 
in  the  funeral  honors  paid  to  the  men  of  Marathon,  even  as  aieir 
merit  had  been  distinguished  over  that  of  all  other  Athenians 
A  lofty  mound  was  raised  on  the  plain  of  Marathon,  beneath 
which  the  remains  of  the  men  of  Athens  who  fell  in  the  battle 
were  deposited.  Ten  columns  were  erected  on  the  spot,  cne  for 
each  of  the  Athenian  tribes  ;  and  on  the  monumental  column 
of  each  tribe  were  graven  the  names  of  those  of  its  members 
whose  glory  it  was  to  have  fallen  in  the  great  battle  of  liberation. 
The  antiquarian  Pausanias  read  those  names  there  six  hundred 
years  after  the  time  when  they  were  first  graven. =*  The  columns 
have  long  perished,  but  the  mound  stili  marks  the  spot  where 
the  noblest  heroes  of  antiquity,  the  MapuUcovoiiaxoi,  repose. 

A  separate  tumulus  Avas  raised  over  the  bodies  of  the  slain 
Plataeans,  and  another  over  the  light-armed  slaves  who  had  taken 
part  and  had  fallen  in  the  battle. t  There  was  also  a  separate 
funeral  monimient  to  the  general  to  whoso  genius  the  victory 
was  mainly  due.  Miltiades  did  not  live  long  after  his  achieve- 
ment at  Marathon,  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  experience  a 
lamentable  reverse  of  his  popularity  and  succops.  As  soon  as 
the  Persians  had  quitted  the  western  coasts  of  *.he  ^Egajan,  ho. 
proposed  to  an  assembly  of  the  Athenian  people  thai  ihey  should 
ft  out  seventy  galleys,  with  a  proportionate  force  of  soldiers  and 
military  stores,  and  place  it  at  his  disposal  ;  not  telling  them 
whither  he  meant  to  lead  it,  but  promising  them  that  if  they 
would  equip  the  force  he  asked  for,  and  give  him  discretionary 
powers,  he  would  lead  it  to  a  land  where  there  waM  gold  in 

*  Pausanias  state.s,  with  implicit  belief,  that  the  battle-field  was  haunted 
at  night  by  supernatural  beings,  and  tliat  the  noise  of  combatants  and  the 
snorting  of  horses  were  heard  to  resound  on  it.  The  superstition  liaa 
Burvivfd  the  change  of  ereeds,  and  tiie  siiepherds  of  the  neighbor'xtid 
etill  believe  that  sprctral  warriors  contend  on  the  plain  at  midnigiil,  and 
they  say  that  they  have  heard  the  shouts  of  the  combatants  and  the  neigh- 
ing of  the  steeds.     See  Grote  and  Thirlwall. 

■f  It  is  probable  that  the  Greek  light-armed  irregulars  were  r.rtive  ip 
Ihi;  attack  on  the  Persian  ships,  and  it  was  in  t\  is  attack  thai  the  Greeks 
•ufTered  their  principal  loss. 


40  U  A  T  r  L  £     OF     M  ARa.THO;V. 

abundiince  to  he  M-on  with  ease.  The  Greeks  of  that  time  be- 
Ueved  in  the  existence  of  Eastern  realms  teeming  with  gold,  as 
firmly  as  the  Europeans  of  the  sixteenth  century  believed  in  El 
Dorado  of  the  West.  The  Athenians  probably  thought  that  the 
recent  victor  of  Marathon,  and  former  officer  of  Darius,  was 
about  to  lead  them  on  a  secret  expedition  against  some  wealthy 
and  unprotected  cities  of  treasure  in  the  Persian  dominions. 
j?h?  armament  Avas  voted  and  equipped,  and  sailed  eastward 
froia  Attica,  no  one  hut  Miltiades  knowing  its  destination  until 
the  Greek  isle  of  Paros  was  reached,  when  his  true  object  ap 
peared.  In  former  years,  while  connected  with  the  Persians  as 
prince  of  the  Chersonese,  Miltiades  had  been  involved  in  a  quar- 
rel with  one  of  the  leading  men  among  the  Parians,  who  had 
injured  his  credit  and  caused  some  slights  to  be  put  upon  him  at 
the  court  of  the  Persian  satrap  Hydarnes.  The  feud  had  evtr 
since  rankled  in  the  heart  of  the  Athenian  chief,  and  he  now 
attacked  Paros  for  the  sake  of  avenging  himself  on  his  ancient 
enemy.  His  pretext  as  general  of  the  Athenians,  was,  that  th<; 
Parians  had  aided  the  amiament  of  Datis  with  a  war-galley. 
The  Parians  pretended  to  ti"eat  about  terms  of  surrender,  but 
used  the  time  which  they  thus  gained  in  repairing  the  defective 
parts  of  the  fortifications  of  their  city,  and  they  then  set  the 
Athenians  at  defiance.  So  far,  says  Herodotus,  the  accounts  of 
all  the  Greeks  agree.  But  the  Parians  in  after  years  told  also 
a  Avild  legend,  how  a  captive  priestess  of  a  Parian  temple  of  the 
Deities  of  tlie  Earth  promised  IMiltiadcs  to  give  him  the  means 
*)f  capturing  Paros  ;  how,  at  her  bidding,  the  Athenian  general 
went  alone  at  night  and  forced  his  way  into  a  holy  shrine,  neai 
the  city  gate,  but  with  what  purpose  it  was  not  known  ;  how  a 
supernatural  awe  came  over  him,  and  in  his  flight  he  fell  and 
frac'-ured  his  leg  ;  how  an  oracle  afterward  forbade  the  Parians 
to  punish  the  sacrilegious  and  traitorous  priestess,  "  because  it 
was  fated  that  Miltiades  should  come  to  an  ill  end,  and  she  M'as 
only  the  instrument  to  lead  hinr,  to  evil."  Such  was  the  tale 
that  Herodotus  heard  at  Paros.  Certain  it  was  that  Miltiades 
either  dislocated  or  broke  his  leg  during  an  unsuccessful  siege  of 
ihe  city,  and  returned  home  in  evil  plight  witli  his  bafiled  anci 
defeated  forces. 

The  indignation  of  the  Athenians  was  proportionate  to  the 
hope  ind  excitement  which  his  promises  had  raised.     Xanthip' 


BATTLEOF     MARATHON.  4 

pas,  the  head  of  one  of  the  first  famihes  in  Athens,  intli(;1ed  hir« 
before  the  supreme  popular  tribunal  for  the  capital  ofi'euse  of 
having  deceived  the  people.  His  guilt  was  undeniable,  and  the 
Atlieuians  passed  their  venlict  accordingly.  But  the  recollec- 
tions of  Lcnnios  and  Marathon,  and  the  siirht  of  the  fallen  gen- 
eral, Avho  lay  stretched  on  a  couch  before  them,  pleaded  ^ucc.ss 
fully  in  rnitigntion  of  punishment,  and  the  sentence  was  com- 
muted from  deith  to  a  fine  of  fifty  talents.  This  was  paid  by 
his  eon,  the  afterwarl  illustrious  Cimon,  Miltiades  dying,  soon 
after  the  trial,  of  the  injury  which  he  had  received  at  Pares.* 

*  The  commnnplace  calumnies  arrainst  the  Athenians  respecting  Milti 
ades  liave  l)een  well  answeved  hy  Sir  Edward  Lytton  Biilwer  in  his  "  llise 
and  Fall  of  Alliens,"  and  Bishop  Thirlwall  in  the  second  volume  of  his 
"  History  of  Greece  ;"  hut  they  have  received  their  most  complete  refu- 
tation from  Mr.  Grote,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  liis  History,  p  490,  et  seq., 
and  notes.  I  quite  concur  with  him  that,  "lookinjr  to  the  practice  of  ihe 
\lhenian  dicastery  in  criminal  cases,  that  fifty  talents  was  ihe  minor  pen- 
alty actually  proposed  hy  the  defenders  of  Miltiades  themselves  as  a  .suh- 
stitute  for  the  punishment  of  death.  In  those  penal  cases  at  Athens 
where  the  [uinishment  was  not  fixed  heforehand  hy  the  terms  ol  the  law, 
if  tiic  person  accused  was  found  guilty,  it  was  customary  to  suhmit  to  the 
jurors  suhseqiiently  and  separately  the  queslion  as  to  amount  of  punish- 
ment. First,  the  accuser  named  the  penalty  which  he  thought  suitahle  ; 
next,  the  accused  person  w'as  called  upon  to  name  an  amount  of  penalty 
for  himself,  and  the  jurors  were  constrained  to  take  their  choice  between 
these  two,  no  third  gradation  of  penalty  being  admissible  for  considera- 
tion. Of  course,  under  such  circumstances,  it  was  the  interest  of  tht 
accused  party  to  name,  even  in  his  own  case,  some  real  and  serious  pen- 
alty, something  which  the  jurors  might  be  likely  to  deem  not  wholly  in- 
adequate to  his  crime  just  proved  ;  for  if  he  proposed  some  penalty  onlj 
trifling,  he  drove  them  to  prefer  the  heavier  sentence  recommended  by 
h!s  opponent."  The  stories  ol  Miltiades  having  been  cast  into  prison  and 
died  there,  and  of  his  having  been  saved  from  death  only  by  the  interpo- 
siLion  of  the  prytanis  of  the  day,  are,  I  think,  ri<;htly  rejected  by  .Mr.  Grote 
as  the  fictions  of  alter  ages.  The  silence  of  Herodotus  respecting  them 
is  decisive.  It  is  true  that  Plato,  in  the  Gorgias,  says  that  the  Athenians 
passed  a  vote  to  throw  Miltiades  into  the  Barathrum,  and  speaks  of  the 
interposition  of  the  prytanis  in  his  favor  ;  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
Plato,  with  all  Iris  transcendent  genius,  was  (as  Niehuhr  has  termed  hinij 
a  very  inditferent  patriot,  who  loved  to  blacken  the  character  of  his  coun 
Crj's  democratical  institutions;  and  if  the  fact  was  that  the  prytanis,  at 
the  trial  of  Miltiadt  s,  opposed  t  le  vote  of  capital  punishment,  and  spoke 
in  favoi  of  the  milder  sentence,  Plato  (m  a  passage  written  to  show  the 
misfortunes  that  befell  Atheiian  statesmen)  would  readil;  exaggerate 
this  fact  into  t^e  story  that  appears  in  his  text 


*2  BATTLEOFMaKJTHOX. 

The  melancholy  end  of  Miltiades,  after  his  elevation  to  such  d 
height  of  power  and  glory,  must  often  have  been  recalled  to  the 
minds  of  the  ancient  Greeks  by  the  sight  of  one  in  part  c  ilar  of 
the  memorials  of  the  great  bottle  which  he  won.  This  was  the 
remarkable  statue  (minutely  described  by  Pausanias)  which  the 
Athenians,  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  caused  to  be  hewn  out  of  a 
huge  block  of  marble,  wliich,  it  was  believed,  had  been  provided 
by  Datis,  to  form  a  troph)  of  the  anticipated  victory  of  the  Per- 
sians. Phidias  fashioned  out  of  this  a  colossal  image  of  the  god- 
dess Nemesis,  the  deity  whose  peculiar  function  was  to  visit  the 
eruberant  prosperity  both  of  nations  and  iudiAaduals  with  sudden 
ai  d  awful  reverses.  This  statue  was  placed  in  a  temple  of  the 
goddess  at  Rhamirus,  about  eight  miles  from  Marathon.  Ath- 
ens itself  contained  numerous  memorials  of  her  primary  great 
victory.  Panenus,  the  cousin  of  Phidias,  represented  it  in  fresco 
on  the  w^alls  of  the  painted  poi'ch  ;  and,  centuries  afterward,  the 
figures  of  Miltiades  and  Callimachus  at  the  head  of  the  Atheni- 
ans were  conspicuous  in  the  fresco.  The  tutelary  deities  were 
exhibited  taking  part  in  the  fray.  In  the  back-ground  were  seen 
the  Phcenicijm  galleys,  and,  nearer  to  the  spectator,  the  Atheni- 
ans  and  the  Platseans  (distinguished  by  their  leather  helmets) 
were  chasing  routed  Asiatics  into  the  marshes  and  the  sea.  The 
battle  Was  sculptured  also  on  the  Temple  of  Victory  in  the  Acrop- 
olis, and  even  now  there  may  be  traced  on  the  frieze  the  figures 
of  the  Persian  combatants  with  their  lunar  shields,  their  bows  and 
quivers,  their  curved  cimeters,  their  loose  trowsers,  and  Phrygian 
tiaras.* 

These  and  oth(!r  memorials  of  Marathon  were  the  produce  of 
the  meridian  age  of  Athenian  intellectual  splendor,  of  the  age  of 
Phidias  and  Pericles  ;  for  it  was  not  merely  by  the  generation 
whom  the  battle  liberated  from  Hippias  and  the  Medes  that  the 
transcendent  importance  of  their  victory  was  gratefully  recog- 
nized. Througli  the  \vhole  epoch  of  her  prosperity,  thiough  the 
long  Olympiads  of  her  decay,  through  centuries  after  her  fall, 
Athens  looked  back  on  the  day  of  Marathon  as  the  brightest  of 
her  national  existence. 

By  a  natural  blending  of  patriotic  pride  with  grateful  piety, 
the  very  spirits  of  the  Athenians  who  fell  at  Marathon  were  de- 
ified bv  their  countrymen.  The  inhabitants  of  the  district  of 
*  Wordsworth's  "Greece,"  p.  115. 


U  ATTL  E     OF     M  »  A  A  THOrr.  43 

Miraihiiii  paid  religious  rites  to  Iheni  ;  and  orators  soiemiily  in- 
voked lUoui  in  their  moot  impassioned  adjurations  htiore  the  as- 
sembled men  of  Athens.  "Nothing  was  omitted  that  could 
keep  alive  the  remembrance  of  a  deed  which  had  first  taught 
the  Athenian  peo})lc  to  know  its  own  strength,  by  measuring  it 
with  the  ])o\ver  which  had  subdued  the  greater  part  of  the  known 
world.  The  consciousness  thus  awakened  fixed  its  character,  its 
station,  and  its  destiny  ;  it  was  the  spring  of"  its  lateu'  great  ac- 
tions and  ambitious  enterprises."* 

It  was  not  indeed  by  one  defeat,  however  signal,  that  the  pride 
dF  Persia  could  be  broken,  arul  her  dreams  of  universal  empire 
dispelled.  Ten  years  afterward  she  renewed  her  attempts  upon 
Europe  on  a  grander  scale  of  enterprise,  and  was  repulsed  by 
Greece  with  greater  and  reiterated  loss.  Larger  forces  and  heav- 
ier slaughter  than  had  been  seen  at  Marathon  signalized  the  con- 
flicts of  Greeks  and  Persians  at  Artemisium,  Salamis,  Plataja,  and 
the  Eurymedon.  But,  mighty  and  momentous  as  these  battles 
were,  they  rank  not  with  Marathon  in  importance.  They  orig- 
inated no  new  impulse.  They  turned  back  no  current  of  fate. 
They  were  merely  confirmatory  of  the  already  existing  bias  which 
Marathon  had  created.  The  day  of  Marathon  is  the  critical 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  tvi'o  nations.  It  broke  forever  the 
spell  of  Persian  invincibility,  which  had  previously  paralyzed 
men's  minds.  It  generated  among  the  Greeks  the  spirit  <vhich 
beat  back  Xerxes,  and  afterward  led  on  Xenophon,  Ag-  /ilaus, 
wid  Alexander,  in  terrible  retaliation  through  their  Asiat'.*  cam- 
paigns. It  secured  for  mankind  the  intellectual  treasures  of 
Athens,  the  growth  of  free  institutions,  the  liberal  enlightfnmen\ 
of  the  Western  world,  and  the  gradual  ascendency  for  ma'jy  ages 
of  the  great  princip'es  of  European  civihzation. 


RxPlAKATDRY    K.EMARKS    ON    SOME    OF    THE    ClRCUMSTANCr-3    OF 

THE  Battle  of  Marathon. 

Nothing  is  said  by  Herodotus  of  the  Persian  cavalry  faking 

any  part  in  the  battle.,  although  he  mentions  that  Hjppi.vs  rec- 

omiiicuded  the  Persians  to  land  at  Marathon,  because  ttn,  jilaio 

waa  favorabh".  for  cavalrj  evolutions.     In  the  life  ri  Mllf  a.jas 

•  Thirlwall 


44         EXPLAN-ITORY     REMARKS     ON     THE     BATTLE. 

which  is  usually  cited  as  the  prDduction  of  Cornelius  Nepos,  b\it 
which  I  believe  to  be  of  no  authority  whatever,  it  is  said  that 
Miltiiules  protected  his  flanks  from  the  enemy's  hoi'se  by  an  aba- 
tis of  felled  trees.  While  he  was  on  the  high  ground  he  would 
not  have  required  this  defense,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Per- 
sians would  have  allowed  him  to  erect  it  on  the  plain. 

Bishop  Thirlwali  calls  our  attention  to  a  passage  in  Suidas, 
where  the -proverb  X(I)pic  iTrnelg  is  said  to  have  originated  from 
8cni6  Ionian  Greeks  who  were  serving  compulsorily  in  the  Army 
of  Datis,  contriving  to  inform  Miltiades  that  the  Persian  cavalry 
had  gone  away,  wdiereupon  Miltiades  immediately  joined  battle 
and  gained  the  victory.  There  may  probably  be  a  gleam  of 
ti-uth  in  this  legend.  If  Datis's  cavalry  was  numerous,  as  th( 
abundant  pastures  of  Euboea  were  close  at  hand,  the  Persian  gen- 
eral, AA'hen  he  thought,  from  the  inaction  of  his  enemy,  that  they 
did  not  mean  to  come  down  from  the  heights  and  give  battle, 
might  naturally  send  the  larger  part  of  his  horse  back  across  the 
chaiuiel  to  the  neighborhood  of  Eretria,  where  he  had  already  left 
a  detachment,  and  where  his  military  stores  must  have  been  de- 
posited. The  knowledge  of  such  a  movement  would  of  course  con- 
firm Miltiades  in  his  resolution  to  bring  on  a  speedy  engagement. 

But,  in  truth,  M'hatever  amount  of  cavalry  we  suppose  Datis 
to  have  had  with  him  on  the  day  of  Marathon,  their  inaction  in 
the  battle  is  intelligible,  if  we  believe  the  attack  of  the  Athenian 
spearmen  to  have  been  as  sudden  as  it  was  rapid.  The  Persian 
horse-soldier,  on  an  alarm  being  given,  had  to  take  the  shackles 
off  his  horse,  to  strap  the  saddle  on,  and  bridle  him,  besides  equipc 
ping  himself  (sec  Xenoph.,  "  Anab.,"  lib.  iii.,  c.  4) ;  and  when 
each  individual  horseman  was  ready,  the  line  had  to  be  formed ; 
and  the  time  that  it  takes  to  form  the  Oriental  cavalry  in  line 
for  a  charge  has,  in  all  ages,  been  observed  by  Europeans. 

The  Avet  state  of  the  marshes  at  eacli  end  of  the  plain,  in  the 
time  of  year  when  tlie  battle  was  fouglrt,  has  been  adverted  to 
])y  Mr.  Wordiworth,  and  this  would  hinder  the  Persian  general 
from  arranging  and  employing  his  horsemen  on  his  extreme  wings, 
while  it  also  enabled  the  Greeks,  as  they  came  forward,  to  occu- 
py the  whole  breadth  of  the  practieabb  ground  with  an  un- 
broken line  of  leveled  spears,  against  w  lich,  if  any  Persian  horse 
advanced  they  would  be  driven  back  in  confusion  upon  theu 
own  foot 


SYNOPSIS     OF     INTERVENING      EVENTS.  15 

E»'en  numerous  and  fully-arrayed  bodies  of  cavalry  have  been 
repeatedly  broken,  both  in  ancient  and  modern  warfare,  by  reso- 
lute charges  of  infantry.  For  instance,  it  was  by  an  attack  of 
some  picked  cohorts  that  Caesar  routed  the  Pompeian  cavalry 
(which  had  previously  defeated  his  own),  and  won  the  battle  of 
i^barsalia. 

I  have  represented  the  battle  of  Marathon  as  beginning  in  thg 
aflernoon  and  ending  toward  evening.  If  it  had  lasted  all  day, 
iU  lodotus  Avould  have  probably  mentioned  that  fact.  That  it 
ended  toward  evening  is,  I  think,  proved  by  the  line  from  iii^ 
"  Vespa;,"  which  I  have  already  quoted,  and  to  which  my  atten- 
tion was  called  by  Sir  Edward  Bulwer's  account  of  the  battle 
I  think  that  the  succeeding  lines  in  Aristophanes,  also  already 
quoted,  justify  the  description  which  I  have  given  of  the  reai 
ranks  of  the  Persians  keeping  up  a  fire  of  arrows  over  the  heads 
of  their  comrades,  as  the  Normans  did  at  Hastings. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Marathon, 
BAJ.  490,  AND  THE  Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syra- 
cuse, B.C.  413. 

B.C.  490  to  487.  All  Asia  filled  with  the  preparations  made 
by  King  Darius  for  a  new  expedition  against  Greece.  Themis- 
tocles  persuades  the  Athenians  to  leave  off  dividing  the  proceeda 
ol'  their  silver  mines  among  themselves,  and  to  employ  the  money 
in  strengthening  their  navy. 

487.  Egypt  revolts  from  the  Persians,  and  delays  the  expedi- 
tion against  Greece. 

485.  Darius  dies,  and  Xerxes  his  son  becomes  King  of  Persia 
in  his  stead. 

484.  The  Persians  recover  Egypt. 

460.  Xerxes  invades  Greece.  Indecisive  actions  between  tho 
Persian  and  Greek  fleets  at  Artemisiura.  Destruction  of  the 
thrte  hundred  Spartans  at  Thermopylaj.  The  Athenians  aban- 
don Attica  and  go  on  shipboard.  Great  naval  victory  of  the 
Greeks  at  Salamis.  Xerxes  returns  to  Asia,  leaving  a  chosen 
vrmy  under  Mardonius  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the  Greeks 

476.  Mardonius  and  his  army  destroyed  by  the  Greeks  at  Pla 
tsea.     The  Greeks  land  in  Asia  Minor,  and  defeat  a  Persian  forca 


46  SYNOPSISOK 

at  Mjcale.  In  this  and  the  following  years  the  Persiars  lose  all 
their  conquests  in  Europe,  and  many  on  the  coast  of  Asia. 

477.  Many  of  the  Greek  maritime  states  take  Athens  as  theii 
leader  instead  of  Sparta. 

466.  Victories  of  Cimon  over  the  Persians  at  the  Euryraedon 

464  Revolt  of  the  Helots  against  Sparta  Third  Messenlan 
war. 

4G0.  Egypt  again  revolts  against  Persia.  The  Athenians  send 
a.  powerful  armament  to  aid  the  Egyptians,  which,  after  gaining 
Bome  successes,  is  destroyed  ;  and  Egypt  submits.  This  war  last- 
ed six  years. 

457.  Wars  in  Greece  between  the  Athenian  and  several  I  Ao- 
ponnesian  states.  Immense  exertions  of  Athens  at  this  time. 
"  There  is  an  original  inscription  still  preserved  in  the  Louvre 
which  attests  the  energies  of  Athens  at  this  crisis,  when  Athens, 
like  England  in  modern  wars,  at  once  sought  conquests  abroad 
and  repelled  enemies  at  home.  At  the  period  we  now  advert  to 
(B.C.  457),  an  Athenian  armament  of  two ' hundred  galleys  was 
engaged  in  a  bold  though  unsuccessful  expedition  against  Egypt. 
The  Athenian  crews  had  landed,  had  won  a  battle  ;  they  had 
then  re-embarked  and  sailed  up  the  Nile,  and  were  busily  be- 
sieging the  Persian  garrison  in  Memphis.  As  the  complement 
of  a  trireme  galley  was  at  least  two  hundred  men,  we  can  not 
estimate  the  forces  then  employed  by  Athens  against  Egypt  at 
less  than  forty  thousand  men.  At  the  same  time,  she  kept  squad- 
rons on  the  coasts  of  Pho2nicia  and  Cyprus,  and  yet  maintained 
a  home  fleet  that  enabled  her  to  defeat  her  Peloponnesian  ene- 
mies at  Cecryphalse  and  JEgina,  capturing  in  the  last  engage- 
ment seventy  galleys.  This  last  fact  may  give  us  some  idea  ot 
the  strength  of  the  Athenian  home  fleet  that  gained  the  victory , 
and  by  adopting  the  same  ratio  of  multiplying  whatever  numbei 
of  galleys  we  suppose  to  have  been  employed  by  two  hundred, 
BO  as  to  gain  the  aggregate  number  of  the  crews,  we  may  form 
some  estimate  of  the  forces  which  this  little  Greek  state  then  kept 
on  foot.  Between  sixty  and  seventy  thousand  men  nmst  have 
Beived  in  her  fleets  during  that  year.  Her  tenacity  of  purpose 
was  equal  to  her  boldness  of  enterprise.  Sooner  than  yield  ox 
withdraw  from  any  of  their  expeditions,  the  Athenians  at  this 
very  time,  when  Corinth  sent  an  army  to  attack  their  garrisou 
at  Megara   did  not  recall  a  single  crew  or  a  single  soldier  frow 


INTER  V  E  N  1  NG     E  VE  N  TS.  i? 

JRg'ii  a  ^T  from  abroad  ;  but  the  lads  and  old  men,  wha  had  been 
l(!l"t  to  giiird  the  city,  fought  and  won  a  battle  against  these  new 
arssailants.  The  inscription  which  we  have  referred  to  is  grav- 
en on  a  votive  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  erected  in  that 
year  by  the  Erechthean  tribe,  one  of  the  ten  into  which  the  Athe- 
niaiis  were  divided.  It  shows,  as  Thirlwall  has  remarked,  '  that 
the  Athenians  were  conscious  cf  the  greatness  of  their  own  effort ;' 
and  in  it  this  little  civic  community  of  the  ancient  world  still 
'  records  to  us  with  emphatic  simplicity,  that  its  slain  »'ell  in 
(Jyprus,  in  Egypt,  in  Phoenicia,  at  Halioe,  in  ^Egina,  and  'n  Me- 
gara,  i?i  the  stufic  year.'  "* 

445.  A  thirty  ytars'  truce  concluded  between  Athens  and  Lac 
eda;mon. 

440.  The  Samians  endeavor  to  throw  off  the  supremacy  of 
Athens.  Samos  completely  reduced  to  subjection.  PericJ^is  ij 
now  sole  director  of  the  Athenian  councils. 

431.  Commencement  of  the  great  Peloponnesian  war,  in  which 
JSparla,  at  the  head  of  nearly  all  the  Peloponnesian  states,  and 
aided  by  the  Boeotians  and  some  of  the  other  Greeks  beyond  the 
Isthmus,  endeavojs  to  reduce  the  power  of  Athens,  and  to  restore 
independence  to  the  Greek  maritime  states  who  were  the  subject 
allies  of  Athens.  At  the  commencement  of  the  war  the  Pelopor.- 
nesian  armies  repeatedly  invade  and  ravage  Attica,  but  Athenr 
herself  is  impregnable,  and  her  fleets  secure  her  the  dominion  of 
the  sea. 

430.  Athens  visited  by  a  pestilence,  which  sweeps  off  larg*- 
numbers  of  her  population. 

425.  The  Athenians  gain  great  advantages  over  the  Spartana 
at  Sphacteria,  and  by  occupying  Cythera ;  but  they  suffer  a  se- 
vere defeat  in  Bccotia,  and  the  Spartan  general,  Brasidas,  leads 
an  expedition  to  the  Thracian  coasts,  and  conquers  many  of  the 
most  valuable  Athenian  possessions  in  those  regions. 

421.  Nominal  truce  for  thirty  years  between  Athens  and 
Sparta,  but  hostilities  continue  on  the  Thracian  coast  'And  in 
Bther  quarters. 

415.  The  Atheniaiis  send  an  expedition  to  conquer  Sicily. 
•  Paeans  of  the  Athenian  Navy. 


43  DZFr.AT     OF     THE     ATHENIANS 


CHAPTER  II. 

DEFEAT    OF    THE    ATHENIANS    AT    SYRACUSE,  B.C.   413. 

The  Romans  knew  not,  and  could  not  know,  how  deeply  the  greatr.  5t* 
of  their  own  posterity,  and  the  fate  of  the  whole  Western  world,  were  in- 
volved in  the  dtstruction  of  the  fleet  of  Athens  in  the  harbor  of  Syracuse. 
Had  that  great  expedition  proved  victorious,  the  energies  of  Greece  dur- 
ing the  next  eventful  century  would  have  found  their  field  in  the  M^est  no 
less  than  in  the  East ;  Greece,  and  not  Rome,  might  have  conquered  Car- 
thage ;  Greek  instead  of  Latin  might  have  been  at  this  day  the  principal 
element  of  the  language  of  Spain,  of  France,  and  of  Italy  ;  and  the  laws 
of  Athens,  rather  than  of  Rome,  might  be  the  foundation  of  the  law  of  the 
civilized  world. — Arnold. 

Few  cities  have  undergone  more  memorable  sieges  during 
ancient  and  mediajval  times  than  has  the  city  of  Syracuse. 
Athenian,  Oarthaginian,  Roman,  Vandal,  Byzantine,  Saracen, 
and  Norman,  have  in  turns  beleaguered  her  walls  ;  and  the  re- 
sistance which  she  successfully  opposed  to  some  of  her  early  as- 
sailants was  of  the  deepest  importance,  not  only  to  the  fortunes 
of  the  generations  then  in  being,  but  to  all  the  subsequent  cur- 
rent of  human  events.  To  adopt  the  eloquent  exviressions  of 
Arnold  respecting  the  check  which  she  gave  to  the  Carthaginian 
arms,  "  Syracuse  was  a  breakwater  which  God's  providence 
raised  up  to  protect  the  yet  immature  strength  of  Rome."  And 
her  triumphant  repulse  of  the  great  Athenian  expedition  against 
her  was  of  even  more  wide-spread  and  enduring  importance.  It 
forms  a  decisive  epoch  in  the  strife  for  universal  empire,  in  which 
all  the  great  states  of  antiquity  successively  engaged  and  failed. 

The  present  city  of  Syracuse  is  a  place  of  little  or  no  military 
strength,  as  the  fire  of  artillery  from  the  neighboring  heights 
would  almost  completely  command  it.  But  in  ancient  warfare, 
its  position,  and  the  care  bestowed  on  its  walls,  rendered  it  for- 
midably strong  against  tlie  means  of  olTensc  which  then  wero 
ernph)yed  by  besieging  armies. 

The  ancient  city,  in  its  most  prosperous  times,  was  chiefly 
built  on  the  knob  of  land  which  projects  into  the  sea  on  the  east- 
em  coast  of  Sicily,  between  two  bays  ;  one  of  which,  to  the  north. 


A.  V     SYUACUSK,     413     H    C  i^l 

was  called  the  Bay  of  Thapsus,  while  the  southern  one  formed 
the  great  harbor  of  the  city  of  Syracuse  itself.  A  small  i&iaiid, 
or  peninsula  (for  such  it  soon  was  rendered),  lies  at  tho  south- 
eastern extremity  of  this  knob  of  land,  stretching  almost  entirely 
across  the  mouth  of  the  great  harbor,  and  rendering  it  nearly 
hiud-locked.  This  island  comprised  the  original  settlement  of 
the  first  Greek  colonists  from  Corinth,  who  founded  Syracusfe 
two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago ;  and  the  modern  city  hag 
shrunk  again  into  these  primary  limits.  But,  in  the  fifth  century 
before  our  era,  the  growing  wealth  and  population  of  the  Syra- 
cusans  had  led  them  to  occupy  and  include  within  their  city 
walls  portion  after  portion  of  the  main  laud  lying  next  to  the  little 
isle,  so  that  at  the  time  of  the  Athenian  expedition  the  seaward 
part  of  the  land  between  the  tM'o  bays  already  spoken  of  wab 
built  over,  and  fortified  from  bay  to  bay,  and  constituted  the 
larger  part  of  Syracuse. 

The  landward  wall,  therefore,  of  this  district  of  the  citv.  trstj 
ersed  this  knob  of  land,  which  continues  to  slope  upward  from 
the  sea,  and  which,  to  the  west  of  the  old  fortifications  (that  ii^ 
toward  the  interior  of  Sicily),  rises  rapidly  for  a  mile  or  two, 
but  diminishes  in  width,  and  finally  terminates  in  a  long  narrow 
ridge,  between  which  and  Mount  Hybla  a  succession  of  chasms 
and  uneven  low  ground  extends.  On  each  flank  of  this  ridge 
the  descent  is  steep  and  precipitous  from  its  summits  to  the  strips 
of  level  land  that  lie  immediately  below  it,  both  to  the  south- 
west and  northwest. 

The  usual  mode  of  assailing  fortified  towns  in  the  time  of  the 
P^loponnesian  war  was  to  build  a  double  wall  round  them,  suf- 
ficiently strong  to  check  any  sally  of  the  garrison  from  within,  or 
any  attack  of  a  relieving  force  from  without.  The  interval  with- 
n  the  two  walls  of  the  circumvallation  was  roofed  over,  and 
formed  barracks,  in  which  the  besiegers  posted  themselves,  and 
awaited  the  effects  of  want  or  treachory  among  the  besieged  in 
producmg  a  surrender;  and,  in  eveiy'Lxreek  city  of  those  days, 
as  in  fivery  Italian  republic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  rage  of  do- 
mestic sedition  between  aristocrats  and  democrats  ran  high. 
Rancorous  refugees  swarmed  in  the  camp  of  every  invading  en- 
emy ;  and  every  blockaded  city  was  sure  to  contain  within  it> 
wall?  a  body  of  intriguing  malcontents,  wlio  were  eager  to  pur* 
ehas<2  a  party  triumph  at  the  expense  of  a  national  disaster. 

p. 


60  DEFEAT     OF     THE    AT  JENIANS 

Famine  and  faction  were  the  allies  on  whom  besiegers  relied 
The  generals  of  that  time  trusted  to  the  operation  of  these  siir« 
confederates  as  soon  as  they  could  establish  a  complete  blockade 
They  rarely  ventured  on  the  attempt  to  storm  any  fortified  post , 
for  the  mihtary  engines  of  antiquity  were  feeble  in  breaching 
masonrj'  before  the  improvements  which  the  first  Dionysius  ef- 
fected in  the  mechanics  of  destruction  ;  and  the  hves  of  speif' 
men  the  boldest  and  most  high-trained  would,  of  course,  hav€ 
be«n  idly  spent  in  charges  against  unshattered  walls. 

A  city  built  close  to  the  sea,  hke  Syracuse,  was  impregnable, 
save  by  the  combined  operations  of  a  superior  hostile  fleet  and  a 
superior  hostile  army  ;  and  Syracuse,  from  her  size,  her  popu- 
lation, and  her  military  and  naval  resources,  not  unnaturally 
thought  herself  secure  from  finding  in  another  Greek  city  a  foe 
capable  of  sending  a  sufficient  armament  to  menace  her  with 
capture  and  subjection.  But  in  the  spring  of  414  B.C.,  the  Athe 
nian  navy  was  mistress  of  her  harbor  and  the  adjacent  seas  ;  an 
Athenian  army  had  defeated  her  troops,  and  cooped  them  with- 
in the  town  ;  and  from  bay  to  bay  a  blockading  wall  was  being 
rapidly  carried  across  the  strips  of  level  ground  and  the  high 
ridge  outside  the  city  (then  termed  Epipolee),  which,  if  completed, 
would  have  cut  the  Syracusans  off  from  all  succor  from  the  inte- 
rior of  Sicily,  and  have  left  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  Athenian 
generals.  The  besiegers'  Avorks  Avere,  indeed,  unfinished  ;  but 
every  day  the  unfortified  interval  in  their  lines  grew  narrower, 
and  with  it  diminished  all  apparent  hope  of  safety  for  the  be- 
I'eaguered  town. 

Athens  was  now  staking  the  flower  of  her  forces,  and  the  ac- 
cumulated fruits  of  seventy  years  of  glory,  on  one  bold  throw  fci 
the  dominion  of  the  Western  world.  As  Napoleon  from  Mount 
Cceur  de  Lion  pointed  to  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  and  told  his  staflMhat 
the  capture  of  that  town  wo'uld  decide  his  destiny  and  would 
change  the  face  of  the  world,  so  the  Atheinan  oflicers,  from  tlie 
heights  of"  Epipolse,  must  have  looked  on  Syracuse,  and  felt  that 
with  its  fall  all  the  known  powers  of  the  earth  would  fall  be- 
neath them.  They  must  have  felt,  also,  that  Athens,  if  repulsed 
there,  must  pause  forever  from  her  career  of  conquest,  and  sink 
from  an  imperial  republic  into  a  ruined  and  subservictnt  commu- 
nity. 

A.t  Marathon,  the  first  in   date  of  the  gryat  battles  of  the 


AT     SYR  AC  USE,    4  1  3    B.C.  Oi 

world,  ■we  beheld  Athens  struggling  for  self-preservation  against 
tlie  invading  armies  of  the  East.  At  Syracuse  she  appears  as 
the  anibitious  and  oppressive  invader  of  others.  In  her,  as  in 
otiier  republics  of  old  and  of  modern  times,  the  same  energy  that 
had  inspired  the  most  heroic  eli()rts  in  defense  of  the  national 
iadependence,  soon  learned  to  employ  itself  in  daring  and  uii 
Eorupulous  schemes  of  self-aggrandizement  at  the  expense  ol 
nsighboring  nations.  In  the  interval  between  the  Persian  and 
the  Peloponnesian  wars  she  had  rapidly  grown  into  a  conquering 
and  dominant  state,  the  chief  of  a  thout-and  tributary  cities,  and 
the  mi:-tress  of  the  largest  and  best-manned  navy  that  the  Med- 
iterranean had  yet  beheld.  The  occupations  of  her  territory  by 
Xerxes  and  Mardonius,  in  the  second  Persian  war,  had  forced 
her  whole  population  to  become  mariners  ;  and  the  glorious  re- 
sults of  that  struggle  confirmed  them  in  their  zeal  ibr  their  coun- 
try's service  at  sea.  The  voluntary  sufliage  of  the  Greek  cities 
of  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  iEgajan  first  placed  Athens  at 
the  head  of  the  confederation  formed  for  the  further  prosecution 
of  the  war  against  Persia.  But  this  titular  ascendency  was  soon 
converted  by  her  into  practical  and  arbitrary  dominion.  She 
protected  them  from  piracy  and  the  Persian  power,  which  soon 
fell  into  decrepitude  and  decay,  but  she  exacted  in  return  im- 
plicit obedience  to  herself  She  claimed  and  enforced  a  prerog- 
ative of  taxing  them  at  her  discretion,  and  proudly  refused  to  bo 
accountable  for  her  mode  of  expending  their  supplies.  Remon- 
strance agamst  her  assessments  was  treated  as  factious  disloy- 
alty, and  refusal  to  pay  was  promptly  punished  as  revolt.  Per- 
mitting and  encouraging  her  subject  allies  to  furnish  all  theii 
contingents  in  money,  instead  of  part  consisting  of  ships  and  men, 
the  sovereign  republic  gained  the  double  object  of  training  hei 
own  citizens  by  constant  and  well-paid  service  in  her  fleets,  and 
■jf  seeing  her  confederates  lose  their  skill  and  discipline  by  inac- 
Inn,  and  become  more  and  more  passive  and  powerless  under 
her  yoke.  Their  towns  were  generally  dismantled,  while  the 
imjierial  city  herself  was  fortified  with  the  greatest  care  and 
Bumptuousness  ;  \he  accumulated  revenues  from  her  iributaries 
serving  to  strengthen  and  adorn  to  the  utmost  her  havens,  her 
docks,  her  arsenals,  her  theatres,  and  her  shrines,  and  to  array 
her  in  that  plenitude  of  architectural  magnificence,  the  ruins  of 
•which  still  attest  the  intellectual  grandeur  of  the  age  and  peo 


62  DEFEAT     OF     THE     iTUENIAWS 

pie  which  produced  a  Pericles  to  plan  and  a  Plildias  lo  exft 
cute 

All  republics  that  acquire  supremacy  over  other  nations  rulf 
them  selfishly  and  oppressively.  There  is  no  exception  to  thi* 
m  either  ancient  or  modern  times.  Carthage,  Rome,  Venice, 
Genoa,  Florence,  Pisa,  HoUand,  and  Republican  France,  all  t)'r- 
snnized  over  every  province  and  subject  state  where  they  gained 
authority.  But  none  of  them  openly  avowed  their,  sys^m  of 
doing  so  upon  principle  wdth  the  candor  which  the  Athenian  ns- 
pubhcans  displayed  when  any  remonstrance  was  made  against 
the  severe  exactions  which  they  imposed  upon  their  vassal  allies. 
They  avowed  that  their  empire  was  a  tyranny,  and  frankly 
stated  that  they  solely  trusted  to  force  and  terror  to  uphold  it. 
They  appealed  to  what  they  called  "  the  eternal  law  of  nature, 
that  the  weak  should  be  coerced  by  the  strong."*  Sometimes 
they  stated,  and  not  without  some  truth,  that  the  unjust  hatred 
of  Sparta  against  themselves  forced  them  to  be  unjust  to  others 
m  self-defense.  To  be  safe,  they  must  be  powerful ;  and  to  be 
powerful,  they  must  plunder  and  coerce  their  neighbors.  They 
never  dreamed  of  communicating  any  franchise,  or  share  in  of- 
fice, to  their  dependents,  but  jealously  monopolized  every  post 
of  command,  and  all  political  and  judicial  power ;  exposing 
themselves  to  every  risk  with  unflinching  gallantry ;  embarking 
readily  in  every  ambitious  scheme  ;  and  never  sufi^ering  difficulty 
or  disaster  to  shake  their  tenacity  of  purpose  :  in  the  hope  of  ac- 
quiring unbounded  empire  for  their  country,  and  the  means  of 
maintaining  each  of  the  thirty  thousand  citizens  who  made  up 
the  sovereign  repubhc,  in  exclusive  devotion  to  military  occupa- 
tions, and  to  those  brilliant  sciences  and  arts  in  which  Athens 
already  had  reached  the  meridian  of  intellectual  splendor. 

Her  great  political  dramatist  speaks  of  the  Athenian  empire 
as  comprehending  a  thousand  states.  The  language  of  the  stage 
must  not  be  taken  too  literally  ;  but  the  number  of  the  depend 
encies  of  Athens,  at  the  time  when  the  Peloponnesian  confeder 
acy  attacked  her,  was  undoubtedly  very  great.  With  a  few  tri- 
fling exceptions,  all  the  islands  of  the  JEga^an,  and  all  the  Greek 
cities,  which  in  that  age  fringed  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
Hellespont,  and  Thrace,  paid  tribute  to  Athens,  and  implicilly 
obeyed  her  orders.  The  JEgasan  Sea  was  an  Attic  lake.  West 
•  'Aet  KadfOTuTog  roi  yaau  vko  dwaruTepov  Kareipyeadai.—  Thuc,  i..  77 


AT     SYRACUSE,   413    B.O  41 

ward  iif  Greece,  her  influence,  though  strong,  was  not  equally 
predominant.  She  had  colonies  and  allies  among  the  wealthy 
and  populous  Greek  settlements  in  Sicily  and  South  Italy,  but 
ehe  had  no  organized  system  of  confederates  in  those  regions ; 
and  her  galleys  brought  her  no  tribute  from  the  Western  seas 
Tlie  extension  of  her  empire  over  Sicily  was  the  favorite  project 
of  her  ambitious  orators  and  generals.  While  her  great  states- 
man, Pericies,  lived,  his  commanding  genius  kept  his  countrymen 
under  control,  and  forbade  them  to  risk  the  fortunes  of  Athena 
in  distant  enterprises,  while  they  had  unsubdued  and  powerful 
enemies  at  their  own  doors.  He  taught  Athens  this  maxim ; 
but  he  also  taught  her  to  know  and  to  use  her  own  strength, 
and  when  Pericles  had  departed,  the  bold  spirit  which  he  had 
fostered  overleaped  the  salutary  limits  which  he  had  prescribed. 
When  her  bitter  enemies,  the  Corinthians,  succeeded,  in  431  B.C., 
in  mducing  Sparta  to  attack  her,  and  a  confederacy  was  formed 
of  five  sixths  of  the  continental  Greeks,  all  animated  by  anxious 
jealousy  and  bitter  hatred  of  Athens ;  when  armies  far  superior 
in  numbers  and  equipment  tc  those  which  had  marched  against 
the  Persians  were  poured  into  the  Athenian  territory,  and  laid 
it  waste  to  the  city  walls,  the  general  opinion  was  that  Athens 
would  be  reduced,  in  two  or  three  years  at  the  farthest,  to  sub- 
mit to  the  requisitions  cf  her  invaders.  But  her  strong  fortifi- 
cations, by  which  she  was  girt  and  linked  to  her  principal  haven, 
gave  her,  in  those  ages,  almost  all  the  advantages  of  an  insular 
position.  Pericles  had  made  her  trust  to  her  empire  of  the  seas. 
Every  Athenian  in  those  days  was  a  practiced  seaman.  A  state, 
indeed,  whose  members,  of  an  age  fit  for  service,  at  no  time  ex- 
ceeded thirty  thousand,  and  whose  territorial  extent  did  not  equal 
half  Sussex,  could  only  have  acquired  such  a  naval  dominion  as 
Athens  once  held,  by  devoting,  and  zealously  training,  all  its  sons 
to  service  in  its  fleets.  In  order  to  man  the  numerous  gaUeyg 
which  she  sent  out,  she  necessarily  employed  large  numbers  of 
hired  mariners  and  slaves  at  the  oar  ;  but  the  staple  of  her  crewg 
was  Athenian,  and  all  posts  of  command  were  held  by  native 
citizens.  It  was  by  reminding  them  of  this,  of  their  long  prac- 
tice in  seamanship,  and  the  certain  superiority  which  their  dis- 
cipline gave  them  over  the  enemy's  marine,  that  their  great  rain 
ister  mainly  encouraged  them  to  resist  the  combined  power  of 
LacedaRmon  and  her  allies.     He  taught  them  that  Athens  mighl 


64  j>EFIAT     OF     THE     ATHENIANS 

thus  reap  the  fruit  of  her  zealous  devotion  to  maritime  aifa.ir« 
ever  since  the  invasion  of  the  Medes  ;  "  she  had  not,  indeed,  per- 
fected herself;  but  the  reward  of  her  superior  training  was  the 
rule  of  the  sea — a  mighty  dominion,  for  it  gave  her  the  rule  of 
much  fair  land  beyond  its  waves,  safe  from  the  idle  ravages  with 
which  the  Lacedaemonians  might  harass  Attica,  but  never  could 
Bubdue  Athens."* 

Athens  accepted  the  war  with  which  her  enemies  threatened 
her  rather  than  descend  from  her  pride  of  place  ;  and  thougn 
the  awful  visitation  of  the  Plague  came  upon  her,  and  swept 
away  more  of  her  citizens  than  the  Dorian  spear  laid  low,  she 
held  her  own  gallantly  against  her  enemies.  If  the  Peloponne- 
Bian  armies  in  irresistible  strength  wasted  every  spring  her  corn- 
lands,  her  vineyards,  and  her  olive  groves  with  fire  and  sword, 
she  retaliated  on  their  coasts  with  her  fleets  ;  which,  if  resisted, 
were  only  resisted  to  display  the  pre-eminent  skill  and  bravery 
of  her  seamen.  Some  of  her  subject  allies  revolted,  but  the  re- 
volts were  in  general  sternly  and  promptly  quelled.  The  geniua 
of  one  enemy  had  indeed  inflicted  blows  on  her  power  in  Thrace 
which  she  was  unable  to  remedy  ;  but  he  fell  in  battle  in  the 
tenth  year  of  the  w^ar,  and  with  the  loss  of  Brasidas  the  Lace 
dsemonians  seemed  to  have  lost  all  energy  and  judgment.  Both 
sides  at  length  grew  weary  of  the  war,  and  in  421  a  truce  for 
fifty  years  was  concluded,  which,  though  ill  kept,  and  though 
many  of  the  confederates  of  Sparta  refused  to  recognize  it,  and 
hostilities  still  continued  in  many  parts  of  Greece,  protected  the 
Athenian  territory  from  the  ravages  of  enemies,  and  enabled 
Athens  to  accumulate  large  sums  out  of  the  proceeds  of  her  an- 
nual revenues.  So  also,  as  a  few  years  passed  by,  the  havoc 
which  the  pestilence  and  the  sword  had  made  in  her  population 
was  repaired  ;  and  in  415  B.C.  Athens  was  full  of  bold  and  rest- 
less spirits,  who  longed  for  some  field  of  distant  enterpriise  where 
in  they  might  signalize  themselves  and  aggrandize  the  state,  and 
who  looked  on  the  alarm  of  Spartan  hostility  as  a  mere  old 
woman's  tale.  When  Sparta  had  wasted  their  territory  she  had 
done  her  worst ;  and  the  fact  of  its  always  bemg  in  her  power 
to  do  so  seemed  a  strong  reason  for  seeking  to  increase  the  trans- 
marine dominion  of  Athens. 

The  West  was  now  the  quarter  toward  which  the  thought! 
*  Thuc,  lib.  i.,  sec.  144. 


AT     SYRACUSE,    413    EC  06 

of  every  aspiring  Athenian  were  directed.  From  me  very  be 
ginuiufjf  of  the  war  Athens  had  kept  up  an  interest  in  S  oily,  and 
her  squadron  had,  IVom  time  to  time,  appeared  on  its  coasts  and 
taiven  part  in  the  dissensions  in  which  the  Sicilian  Greeks  were 
universally  engaged  one  against  each  other.  There  wore  plau- 
sible grounds  for  a  direct  quarrel,  and  an  open  attack  by  the 
A  l.hcnians  upon  Syracuse. 

With  the  capture  of  Syracuse,  all  Sicily,  it  was  hoped,  would 
he  secured.  Carthage  and  Italy  were  next  to  be  attacked. 
With  large  levies  of  Iberian  mercenaries  she  then  meant  to  over- 
whelm her  Peloponnesian  enemies.  The  Persian  monarchy  lay 
in  hopeless  imbecility,  inviting  Greek  invasion  ;  nor  did  the  known 
world  contain  the  power  that  seemed  capable  of  checking  the 
growing  might  of  Athens,  if  Syracuse  once  could  be  hers. 

The  national  historian  of  Rome  has  left  us  an  episode  of  his 
great  work,  a  disquisition  on  the  probab'.e  effects  that  would  have 
followed  if  Alexander  the  Great  had  invaded  Italy.  Posterity 
has  generally  regarded  that  disquisition  as  proving  Livy's  patri- 
otism more  strongly  than  his  impartiality  or  acuteness.  Yet, 
right  or  wrong,  the  speculations  of  the  Roman  writer  were  di- 
rected to  the  consideration  of  a  very  remote  possibility.  To  what 
ever  age  Alexander's  life  might  have  been  prolonged,  the  East 
would  have  furnished  full  occupation  for  his  martial  ambition, 
as  well  as  for  those  schemes  of  commercial  grandeur  and  impe- 
rial amalgamation  of  nations  in  which  the  truly  great  qualities 
of  his  mind  loved  to  display  themselves.  With  his  death  the  dis- 
memberment of  his  empire  among  his  generals  was  certain,  even 
as  the  dismemberment  of  Napoleon's  empire  among  his  marshals 
would  certainly  have  ensued  if  he  had  been  cut  off"  in  the  zenith 
of  his  power.  Rome,  also,  was  far  weaker  when  the  Athenians 
were  in  Sicily  than  she  was  a  century  afterward  in  Alexander's 
lime.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  Rome  would  have  been 
blotted  out  from  the  independent  powers  of  the  West,  had  she 
been  attacked  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  by  an  Athe- 
nian army,  largely  aided  by  Spanish  mercenaries,  and  fluslied 
with  triumphs  over  Sicily  and  Africa,  instead  of  the  collision  be- 
tween  her  and  Greece  having  been  deferred  until  the  latter  had 
sunk  into  decrepitude,  and  tlie  Roman  Mars  had  grown  into  full 
vigor. 

The  armament  which  the  Athenians  equipped  against  Syra 


66  "uEFEAT     OF     THE     ATHENIANS 

cuse  was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  state  which  formed  such 
projects  of  urdversal  empire,  and  it  has  been  truly  termed  "  the 
noblest  that  ever  yet  had  been  sent  forth  by  a  free  and  civilized 
commonwealth."*  The  fleet  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  thir- 
',y-four  war-galleys,  Mdth  a  multitude  of  store-ships.  A  power- 
ful force  of  the  best  heavy- armed  infantry  that  Athens  and  her 
allies  could  furnish  was  sent  on  board  it,  together  with  a  sraallei 
number  of  slingers  and  bowmen.  The  quality  of  the  forces  was 
even  more  remarkable  than  the  number.  The  zeal  of  individu- 
»ls  vied  with  that  of  the  republic  in  giving  every  galley  the  best 
possible  crew,  and  every  troop  the  most  perfect  accoutrements. 
And  with  private  as  well  as  public  wealth  eagerly  lavished  on 
all  that  could  give  splendor  as  well  as  efficiency  to  the  expedi- 
tion, the  fated  fleet  began  its  voyage  for  the  Sicilian  shores  in 
the  summer  of  415. 

The  Syracusans  themselves,  at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war,  were  a  bold  and  turbulent  democracy,  tyrannizing  over  the 
weaker  Greek  cities  in  Sicily,  and  trying  to  gain  in  that  island 
the  same  arbitrary  supremacy  which  Athens  maintained  along 
the  eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  In  numbers  and  in  spirit 
they  were  fully  equal  to  the  Athenians,  but  far  inferior  to  them 
in  military  and  naval  discipline.  When  the  probability  of  an 
Athenian  invasion  was  first  publicly  discussed  at  Syracuse,  and 
efforts  were  made  by  some  of  the  wiser  citizens  to  improve  the 
state  of  the  national  defenses,  and  prepare  for  the  impending 
danger,  the  rumors  of  coming  yi^ar  and  the  proposal  for  prepara 
tion  were  received  by  the  mass  of  the  Syracusans  with  scornful 
increduhty.  The  speech  of  one  of  their  popular  orators  is  pre- 
served to  us  in  Thucydides,t  and  many  of  its  topics  might,  by  a 
slight  alteration  of  names  and  details,  sei've  admirably  for  the 
party  among  ourselves  at  present,  which  opposes  the  augmenta- 
tion of  our  forces,  and  derides  the  idea  of  our  being  in  any  peril 
from  the  sudden  attack  of  a  French  expedition.  The  Syiacusan 
orator  told  his  countrymen  to  dismiss  with  scorn  the  visional) 
terrors  which  a  set  of  designing  men  among  themselves  strove 
to  excite,  in  order  to  get  power  and  influence  thrown  into  theii 
own  hands      He  told  them  that  Athens  knew  her  own  interest 

•  Arnold's  "  History  of  Rome." 

t  Lib.  vi.,  sec.  36,  et  seq.,  Arnold's  edition.     I  have  almost  literally  trani 
scribed  some  of  the  marginal  epitomes  of  the  original  speech. 


aT     SYRACUSE,    413    B.C  07 

toe  well  t\^  think  of  wantonly  provoking  their  hostility  :  "  Even 
if  the  enemies  tvere  to  come."  said  he.  "so  distant  from  their 
resources,  and  opposed  to  such  a  poiv;)-  as  ours,  their  destruc- 
tion wotdd  be  easy  and  inevitable.  Their  shijjs  ivill  have 
er.oK^h  to  do  to  get  to  our  island  at  all,  and  to  carry  such  stores 
of  all  sorts  as  tvill  be  needed.  They  can  not  therefore  carry, 
bf'sides,  an  army  large  enough  to  cope  with  such  a  populatio'.i 
as  ours.  They  will  Imve  no  fortified  place  from  which  to  com- 
mence their  operations,  but  must  rest  them  on  no  better  base 
than  a  set  of  ivretclted  tents,  and  such  means  as  the  necessities 
of  the  moment  tvill  allow  them.  But,  in  truth,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  they  would  even  be  able  to  effect  a  disembarkation. 
Let  us,  therefore,  set  at  naught  tliese  reports  as  altogether  of 
home  manufacture  ;  and  be  sure  that  if  any  enemy  does  come, 
the  state  uill  knoiu  how  to  defend  itself  in  a  manner  worthy 
of  the  national  honor." 

Such  assertions  pleased  the  Syracusaa  assembly,  and  their 
counterparts  find  favor  now  among  some  portion  of  the  English 
public.  But  the  invaders  of  Syracuse  came  ;  made  good  their 
ianding  in  Sicily  ;  and,  if  they  had  promptly  attacked  the  city 
itself,  instead  of  wasting  nearly  a  year  in  desultory  operaticna 
in  other  parts  of  Sicily,  the  Syracusans  must  have  paid  the  pen- 
alty of  their  self-sufficient  carelessness  in  submission  to  the  Athe- 
nian yoke.  But,  of  the  three  generals  who  led  the  Athenian 
expedition,  two  only  were  men  of  ability,  and  one  was  most  weak 
and  incompetent.  Fortunately  for  Syracuse,  Alcibiades,  the  most 
skillful  of  the  three,  was  soon  deposed  from  his  command  by  a 
factious  and  fanatic  vote  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  the  other 
competent  one,  Lamachus,  fell  early  in  a  skirmish  ;  while,  more 
fortunately  still  for  her,  the  feeble  and  vacillating  Nicias  remain- 
ed unrecalled  and  unhurt,  to  assume  the  undivided  leadership 
:)f  the  Athenian  army  and  fleet,  and  to  mar,  by  alternate  over- 
caution  and  over-carelessness,  every  chance  of  success  which  the 
early  part  of  the  operations  oflbred.  Still,  even  under  him,  the 
Athenians  nearly  won  the  toxyn.  They  defeated  the  raw  levies 
oi  the  Syracusans,  cooped  them  within  the  walls,  and,  as  before 
mentioned,  almost  effected  a  continuous  fortification  from  bay  to 
bay  over  Epipola?,  the  completion  of  which  would  certauily  have 
been  followed  by  a  capitulation. 

Alcibiades,  the  most  complete  example  of  genius  without  prin 

C  a 


58  DEFEAT     OF     THE     ATHENllJ^Jl 

ciple  that  history  produces,  the  Bohngbroke  of  antiquity,  but 
with  high  military  talents  superadded  to  diplomatic  and  orator- 
ical powers,  on  being  summoned  home  frorn  his  command  in 
Sicily  to  take  his  trial  before  the  Athenian  tribunal,  had  escaped 
to  Sparta,  and  had  exerted  himself  there  with  all  the  selfish 
rancor  of  a  renegade  to  renew  the  war  with  Athens,  and  to 
fend  instant  assistance  to  Syracuse. 

"Wlien  we  read  his  words  in  the  pages  of  Thucydldes  (who 
was  himself  an  exile  from  Athens  at  this  period,  and  may  prob- 
ably have  been  at  Sparta,  and  heard  Alcibiades  speak),  we  are 
at  a  loss  Avhether  most  to  admire  or  abhor  his  subtile  and  trait- 
orous counsels.  After  an  artful  exordium,  in  which  he  tried  to 
disarm  the  suspicioiis  which  he  felt  must  be  entertained  of  him. 
and  to  point  out  to  the  Spartans  how  completely  his  interests 
and  theirs  were  identified,  through  hatred  of  the  Athenian  de- 
mocracy,  he  thus  proceeded  : 

"  Hear  me,  at  any  rate,  on  the  matters  which  require  your 
grave  attention,  and  which  I,  from  the  personal  knowledge  that 
I  have  of  them,  can  and  ought  to  bring  before  you.  We  Athe- 
nians sailed  to  Sicily  with  the  design  of  subduing,  first  the  Greek 
cities  there,  and  next  those  in  Italy.  Then  we  intended  to  make 
an  attempt  on  the  dominions  of  Carthage,  and  on  Carthage  it- 
self.* If  all  these  projects  succeeded  (nor  did  we  limit  ourselves 
to  them  in  these  quarters),  we  intended  to  increase  our  fleet 
with  the  inexhaustible  supplies  of  ship  timber  which  Italy  affords, 
to  put  in  requisition  the  whole  military  force  of  the  conquered 
Greek  states,  and  also  to  hire  large  armies  of  the  barbarians,  of 
the  Iberians,t  and  others  in  those  regions,  who  are  allowed  to 
make  the  best  possible  soldiers.  Then,  when  we  had  done  all 
this,  we  intended  to  assail  Peloponnesus  with  our  collected  force. 
Our  fleets  would  blockade  you  by  sea,  and  desolate  your  coasts , 

•  Arnold  in  liis  notes  on  this  passage,  well  reminds  the  reader  that 
Aguthocle.s,  witii  a  Greek  force  far  inferior  to  that  of  the  Athenians  at 
ihif  period,  did,  some  years  afterward,  very  nearly  conquer  Carthage. 

t  It  will  he  remembered  tlial  Spanish  infantry  were  the  staj)]!!  of  the 
Carthaginian  armies.  D()id)tloss  Aleihiados  and  other  leading  Athenians 
1  .id  made  themselves  acquainted  with  llie  Carthaginian  system  of  carry 
ing  on  war,  and  meant  to  adojjt  it.  With  I  he  marvelous  powers  which 
AifMbiades  i)oss(>s.«icd  of  iiigralialing  himself  with  men  of  every  (lass  and 
every  nation,  and  his  high  military  genius,  he  would  have  been  as  formi 
(Ubie  a  ch^ef  of  an  army  of  condotderi  as  Hannibal  afterward  was. 


A  r    SYK  Acu -E,  4  1  3    B.C.  59 

our  arimes  would  be  landed  at  different  points  and  assail  youi 
cities.  Some  of  these  we  expected  to  stomi,*  and  others  we 
meant  to  take  by  surround:  ng  them  with  fortified  lines.  We 
thought  that  it  would  thus  be  an  easy  matter  thoroughly  to  wai 
you  down  ;  and  then  we  should  become  the  masters  of  the  whole 
Greek  race.  As  for  expense,  we  reckoned  that  each  conquered 
Btato  would  give  us  supphes  of  money  and  provisions  sufficient 
to  pay  for  its  own  conquest,  and  furnish  the  means  for  the  con- 
quest of  its  neighbors. 

"  Such  are  the  designs  of  the  present  Athenian  expedition  to 
Sicily,  and  you  have  heard  them  from  the  lips  of  the  man  who, 
of  all  men  living,  is  most  accurately  acqiiainted  with  them.  The 
other  Athenian  generals,  who  remain  with  the  expedition,  will 
endeavor  to  carry  out  these  plans.  And  be  sure  that  without 
your  speedy  interference  they  will  all  be  accomplished.  The 
Sicilian  Greeks  are  deficient  in  military  training  ;  but  still,  if 
they  could  at  once  be  brought  to  combine  in  an  organized  resist- 
ance to  Athens,  they  might  even  now  be  saved.  But  as  for  the 
Syracusans  resisting  Athens  by  themselves,  they  have  already, 
with  the  whole  strength  of  their  population,  fought  a  battle  and 
been  beaten  ;  they  can  not  face  the  Atlienians  at  sea  ;  and  it  is 
quite  impossible  for  them  to  hold  out  against  the  force  of  their 
invaders.  And  if  this  city  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Athenians, 
all  Sicily  is  theirs,  and  presently  Italy  also  ;  and  the  danger, 
which  I  warned  you  of  from  that  quarter,  will  soon  fall  upon 
yourselves.  You  must,  therefore,  in  Sicily,  fight  for  the  safety 
of  Peloponnesus.  Send  some  galleys  thither  instantly.  Put 
men  on  board  who  can  work  their  own  way  over,  and  who,  aa 
soon  as  they  land,  can  do  duty  as  regular  troops.  But,  above 
all,  let  one  of  yourselves,  let  a  man  of  Sparta  go  over  to  take 
the  chief  command,  to  bring  into  order  and  effective  discipline 
the  forces  that  are  in  Syracuse,  and  urge  those  who  at  present 
hang  back  to  come  forward  and  aid  the  Syracusans.  The  pres- 
ence of  a  Spartan  general  at  this  crisis  will  do  more  to  save  the 
city  thin  a  whole  army."t  The  renegade  then  proceeded  to 
urge  or  tliem  the  necessity  of  encouraging  their  friends  in  Sicily, 
by  showing  that  they  themselves  were  in  earnsst  in  hostility  tc 

*  Alcibiades  here  alliuled  to  Sparta  itself,  which  was  unfortified.  His 
Spartan  hearers  must  have  glanced  lound  Ihein  at  these  words  with  mixeJ 
»larm  and  indignation.  t  1  liuc.,  lib.  vi.,  sec.  90,  91. 


60  DEFEAT     Of     THE     ATHENIANS 

Athens.  He  exhorted  them  not  only  to  march  their  armies  int« 
Attica  again,  but  to  take  vip  a  permanent  fortified  position  in  the 
country  ;  and  he  gave  them  in  detail  information  of  all  that  the 
Alhenians  most  dreaded,  and  how  his  country  might  receive  the 
most  distressing  and  enduring  injury  at  their  hands. 

The  Spartans  resolved  to  act  on  his  advice,  and  appointed 
G  j'lippus  to  the  Sicilian  command.  Gylippus  was  a  man  who, 
to  the  national  braver)  and  military  skill  of  a  Spartan,  united 
political  sagacity  that  was  worthy  of  his  great  fellow-comitryman 
Brasidas  ;  but  his  merits  were  debased  by  mean  and  sordid  vices  ; 
and  his  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  history  has  been  austerely 
just,  and  where  little  or  no  fame  has  been  accorded  to  the  suc- 
cessful but  venal  soldier.  But  for  the  purpose  for  which  he  was 
required  in  Sicily,  an  abler  man  could  not  have  been  found  in 
Lacedsemon.  His  country  gave  him  neither  men  nor  money,  but 
she  gave  him  her  authority  ;  and  the  influence  of  her  name  and 
of  his  own  talents  was  speedily  seen  in  the  zeal  with  which  the 
Corinthians  and  other  Peloponnesian  Greeks  began  to  equip  a 
squadron  to  act  under  him  for  the  rescue  of  Sicily.  As  S'jon  as 
four  galleys  were  ready,  he  hurried  over  with  them  to  the  south- 
ern coast  of  Italy,  and  there,  though  he  received  such  evil  tidings 
of  the  state  of  Syracuse  that  he  abandoned  all  hope  of  saving 
that  city,  he  determined  to  remain  on  the  coast,  and  do  what  he 
could  in  preserving  the  Italian  cities  from  the  Athenians. 

So  nearly,  indeed,  had  Nicias  completed  his  beleaguering  lines, 
and  so  utterly  desperate  had  the  state  of  Syracuse  seemingly  be- 
come, that  an  assembly  of  the  Syracusans  was  actually  convened, 
and  they  were  discussing  the  terms  on  w^iich  they  should  offer 
to  capitulate,  when  a  galley  w^as  seen  dashing  into  the  great  har- 
bor, and  making  her  way  toward  the  town  with  all  the  speed 
which  her  rowers  could  supply.  From  her  shunning  the  part  of 
the  harbor  where  the  Athenian  fleet  lay,  and  making  straight 
for  the  Syracusan  side,  it  was  clear  that  sho  was  a  friend  ;  the 
enemy's  cruisers,  careless  through  confidence  of  success,  made  no 
attempt  to  cut  her  oil';  she  touched  the  beach,  and  a  Corinthian 
naptain,  springing  on  shore  from  her,  was  eagerly  conducted  tc 
the  assembly  of  the  Syracusan  people  just  in  time  to  prevent  the 
fatal  vote  being  put  for  a  surrender. 

Providentially  for  Syracuse,  Gongylus,  the  commander  of  the 
galley,  had  been  prevented  by  an  Athenian  squadron  from  loUow 


AT     SYilACUSfi,    413    B.C.  61 

ing  Gylippus  to  South  Italy,  and  he  had  been  obliged  to  puah 
direct  for  Syracuse  from  Greece. 

The  sight  of  actual  succor,  and  the  promise  of  more,  revived 
the  droo])ing  spirits  of  the  Syracusaus.  They  felt  that  they  were 
not  left  desolate  to  perish,  and  the  tidings  that  a  Spartan  was 
coming  to  command  them  confirmed  their  resolution  to  continue 
thsir  resistance.  Gylippus  was  already  near  the  city.  He  had 
learned  at  Locri  that  the  first  report  which  had  reached  him  of 
the  state  of  Syracuse  was  exaggerated,  and  that  there  was  un- 
finished space  in  the  besiegers'  lines  through  which  it  was  barely 
possible  to  introduce  re-enforcements  into  the  town.  Crossing 
the  Straits  of  Messina,  which  the  culpable  negligence  of  Nicias 
had  left  unguarded,  Gylippus  landed  on  the  northern  coast  oC 
Sicily,  and  there  began  to  collect  from  the  Greek  cities  an  army, 
of  which  the  regular  troops  that  he  brought  from  Peloponnesaa 
formed  the  nucleus.  Such  was  the  influence  of  the  name  of 
Sparta,*  and  such  were  his  own  abilities  and  activity,  that  hi 
succeeded  in  raising  a  force  of  about  two  thousand  fully-armed 
infantry,  with  a  larger  number  of  irregular  troops.  Nicias,  ai» 
if  infatuated,  made  no  attempt  to  counteract  his  operations,  no:, 
when  Gylippus  marched  his  little  army  toward  Syracuse,  did  th  « 
Athenian  commander  endeavor  to  check  him.  The  Syracusai* 
marched  out  to  meet  him  ;  and  while  the  Athenians  were  sole!  f 
intent  on  completing  their  fortifications  on  the  southern  siae 
toward  the  harbor,  Gylippus  turned  their  })osition  by  occupying 
the  high  ground  in  the  extreme  rear  of  Epipolie.  He  then 
marched  through  the  unfortified  interval  of  Nicias's  lines  into 
the  besieged  town,  and  joining  his  troops  with  the  Syracusan 
forces,  after  some  engagements  with  varying  success,  gained  the 
mastery  over  Nicias,  drove  the  Athenians  from  Epipolse,  and 
hemmed  them  into  a  disadvantageous  position  in  the  low  grounds 
near  the  great  harbor. 

Tho  attention  of  all  Greece  was  now  fixed  on  Syracuse  ;  and 
every  enemy  of  Athens  felt  the  importance  of  the  opportunity 
now  oilered  of  checking  her  ambition,  and,  perhaps,  of  striking 
a  deadly  blow  at  her  power.  Large  re-enforcements  from  Cor 
oth,  Thebes,  and  other  cities  now  reached  the  Syracusans,  while 

♦  The  effect  of  the  presence  of  a  Spartan  oflieer  on  the  troops  of  th« 
other  Greeks  seems  to  have  been  like  the  effect  of  the  presence  o/  an  Ln- 
glish  officer  upon  native  Indian  troops. 


62  DEFEAT     OF     THE     ATHENIANS 

the  baffled  and  dispirited  Athenian  general  earnestly  hcK  ugh' 
his  countrymen  to  recall  liim,  and  represented  the  further  pros 
ecution  of  the  siege  as  hopeless. 

But  Athens  had  made  it  a  maxim  never  to  let  difficulty  oi 
disaster  drive  her  back  from  any  enterprise  once  undertaken,  so 
long  as  she  possessed  the  means  of  making  any  effort,  however 
d^ST)erate,  for  its  accomplishment.  With  indomitable  pertinaci- 
ty, sb'  now  decreed,  instead  of  recalling  her  first  armament  from 
oefore  SjTacuse,  to  send  out  a  second,  though  her  enemies  near 
home  had  now  renewed  open  warfare  against  her,  and  by  occu 
pying  a  permanent  fortification  in  her  territory  had  severely  dis- 
tressed her  population,  and  were  pressing  her  with  almost  all  the 
hardships  of  an  actual  siege.  She  still  was  mistress  of  the  sea, 
and  she  sent  forth  another  fleet  of  seventy  galleys,  and  another 
army,  which  seemed  to  drain  almost  the  last  reserves  of  her  mil- 
itary populalioii,  1o  try  if  Syracuse  could  not  yet  be  won,  and  the 
honor  of  the  Athenian  arms  be  preserved  from  the  stigma  of  a 
retreat.  Hers  was,  indeed,  a  spirit  that  might  be  broken,  but 
never  Avould  bend.  At  the  head  of  this  second  expedition  she 
wisely  placed  her  best  general,  Demosthenes,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  officers  that  the  long  !Peloponnesian  war  had  pro- 
duced, and  who,  if  he  had  originally  held  the  Sicilian  command, 
would  soon  have  brought  Syracuse  to  submission. 

The  fame  of  Demosthenes  the  general  has  been  dimmed  by 
the  superior  lustre  of  his  great  countryman,  Demosthenes  the  or- 
ator. When  the  name  of  Demosthenes  is  mentioned,  it  is  the 
latter  alone  that  is  thought  of.  The  soldier  has  found  no  biog- 
rapher. Yet  out  of  the  long  list  of  great  men  whom  the  Athe 
nian  republic  produced,  there  are  few  that  deserve  to  stand  high 
er  than  this  brave,  though  finally  unsuccessful  leader  of  her  fleets 
and  armies  in  the  first  half  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  In  his 
first  campaign  in  JEtolia  he  had  shown  some  of  the  rashness  of 
youth,  and  liad  leceived  a  lesson  of  caution  by  which  he  profited 
(throughout  the  rest  of  his  career,  but  without  losing  any  of  hia 
natural  energy  in  enterprise  or  in  execution.  He  had  performed 
the  distinguished  service  of  rescuing  Naupactus  from  a  powerful 
hostile  armament  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  war  ;  he  had  then, 
at  the  rerjuest  of  the  Acarnanian  republics,  taken  on  himself  the 
office  of  c(inniiander-in-c'hit:i  of  all  llieir  forces,  and  at  their  liead 
be  had  gained  some  important  advantages  over  the  enemies  of 


AT     SfRACUSE,     413     B.C.  G3 

Athens  in  Western  Gre(;ce.  His  most  celebrated  exploits  hati 
been  the  occupation  of  Pylos  on  the  Messenian  coast,  the  suc- 
cessful defense  of  that  place  against  the  fleet  and  armies  of  Lac- 
edccmon,  and  the  subsequent  capture  of  the  Spartan  forces  on  the 
isle  of  Sphacteria,  which  was  the  severest  blow  dealt  to  Sparta 
tliroughout  the  war,  and  which  had  mainly  caused  her  to  hum- 
ble herself  to  make  the  truce  with  Athens.  Demosthenes  was 
AS  honorably  unknown  in  the  war  of  party  politics  at  Athens  as 
he  was  eminent  in  the  war  against  the  foreign  enemy.  We  read 
of  no  intrigues  of  his  on  either  the  aristocratic  or  democratic  side. 
He  was  neither  in  the  interest  of  Nicias  nor  of  Cleon.  His  pri- 
vate character  was  free  from  any  of  the  stains  which  polluted 
that  of  Alcibiades.  On  all  these  points  the  silence  of  the  comic 
dramatist  is  decisive  evidence  in  his  favor.  He  had  also  the 
moral  courage,  not  always  combined  with  physical,  of  seeking 
to  do  his  duty  to  his  country,  irrespt  ctive  of  any  odium  that  he 
himself  might  incur,  and  unhampered  by  any  petty  jealousy  of 
those  who  were  associated  with  him  in  command.  There  are 
few  men  named  in  ancient  history  of  whom  posterity  Avould 
gladly  know  more,  or  whom  we  sympathize  with  more  deeply 
in  the  calamities  that  befell  them,  than  Demosthenes,  the  son  of 
Alcisthenes,  who,  in  the  spring  of  the  year  413  B.C.,  left  PiriEua 
at  the  head  of  the  second  Athenian  expedition  against  Sicily. 

His  arrival  was  critically  timed  ;  for  Gylippus  had  encouraged 
the  Syracusans  to  attack  the  Athenians  under  Nicias  by  sea  as 
well  as  by  land,  and  by  one  able  stratagem  of  Ariston,  one  of  the 
admirals  of  the  Corinthian  auxiliary  squadron,  the  Syracusans 
and  their  confederates  had  inflicted  on  the  fleet  of  Nicias  the 
first  defeat  that  the  Athenian  navy  had  ever  sustained  from  a 
numerically  inferior  enemy.  Gylippus  was  preparing  to  follow 
up  his  advantage  by  fresh  attacks  on  the  Athenians  on  both  ele 
ments,  when  the  arrival  of  Demosthenes  completely  changed  the 
aspect  of  affairs,  and  restored  the  superiority  to  the  invaders. 
With  seventy-three  war-galleys  in  the  highest  state  of  efficiency, 
and  brilliantly  equipped,  with  a  brce  of  five  thousand  picked 
men  cf  the  regular  infantry  of  Athens  and  her  allies,  and  a  still 
larger  number  of  bow-men,  javelin-men,  and  slingcrs  on  board, 
Demosthenes  rowed  round  tlie  great  harbor  with  loud  cheers  and 
martial  music,  as  if  in  defiance  of  the  Syracusans  and  tlicir  con- 
federates.    His   arrival  had  indeed   changed  their  newly-borD 


04  DEFEAT     OF     THE     ATHENIANS 

hopes  mto  the  deepest  consternation.  The  resourccB  of  i^thens 
Beeraed  inexhaustible,  and  resistance  to  her  hopeless.  They  had 
been  told  that  she  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremitie,s,  and  that 
her  territory  was  occupied  by  an  enemy ;  and  yet  here  they  saw 
her  sending  forth,  as  if  in  prodigality  of  power,  a  second  arma- 
ment to  make  foreign  conquests,  not  inferior  to  that  with  which 
Kicias  had  first  landed  on  the  Sicihan  shores. 

With  the  intuitive  decision  of  a  great  commander,  Demos- 
thenes at  once  saw  that  the  possession  of  Epipolse  was  the  key 
to  the  possession  of  Syracuse,  and  he  resolved  to  make  a  prompt 
and  vigorous  attempt  to  recover  that  position,  while  his  force  was 
unimpaired,  and  the  constei'nation  which  its  arrival  had  produced 
among  the  besieged  remained  unabated.  The  Syracusans  and 
their  allies  had  run  out  an  outwork  along  Epipolse  from  the  city 
walls,  intersecting  the  fortified  lines  of  circumvallation  which 
Nicias  had  commenced,  but  from  which  he  had  been  driven  by 
Gylippus.  Could  Demosthenes  succeed  in  storming  this  ouit- 
work,  and  in  re-establishing  the  Athenian  troops  on  the  high 
ground,  he  might  fairly  hope  to  be  able  to  resume  the  circum- 
vallation of  the  city,  and  become  the  conqueror  of  Syracuse  ;  for 
when  once  the  besiegers'  lines  were  completed,  the  number  of 
the  troops  with  which  Gylippus  had  garrisoned  the  place  would 
only  tend  to  exhaust  the  stores  of  provisions  and  accelerate  ita 
downfall. 

An  easily-repelled  attack  was  first  made  on  the  outwork  in  th« 
day-time,  probably  more  with  the  view  of  blinding  the  besieged 
*.o  the  nature  of  the  main  operations  than  with  any  expectation 
of  succeeding  in  an  open  assault,  with  every  disadvantage  of  the 
ground  to  contend  against.  But,  when  the  darkness  had  set  in, 
Demosthenes  formed  his  men  in  columns,  each  soldier  taking 
with  him  fivje  days'  provisions,  and  the  engineers  and  workmen 
of  the  camp  following  the  troops  with  their  tools,  and  all  port- 
able implements  of  fortification,  so  as  at  once  to  secure  any  ad- 
vantage of  ground  that  the  army  might  gain.  Thus  equipped  and 
prepared,  he  led  liis  men  along  by  the  foot  of  the  southern  iiank 
cf  Epipol'*,  in  a  direction  toward  the  interior  of  the  island,  till 
lie  came  immediately  below  the  narrow  ridge  that  foims  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  higli  ground  looking  westward.  He  then  wlieeled 
his  vanguard  to  the  right,  sent  them  rapidly  up  the  paths  thai 
wind  along  the  face  of  the  clifl',  and  succeeded  in  completely  sur 


AT     S  YK  ACUSE,    4  1  3     B.C.,  6fl 

prising  the  Syracusan  outposts,  and  in  ]ila(;ing  his  troops  lairly  on 
the  extreme  summit  of  the  all-important  Epipola^  Thence  the 
Athenians  marched  eagerly  down  the  slope  toward  the  town, 
routing  some  Syracusan  detachments  that  were  quartered  in  their 
way,  and  vigorously  assailing  the  unprotected  side  of  the  out- 
work. All  at  first  favored  them.  The  outwork  was  abandcned 
by  its  garrison,  and  the  Athenian  engineers  began  to  dismantle 
it.  In  vain  Gylippus  brought  up  fresh  troops  to  check  the  as- 
siult ;  the  Athenians  broke  and  di'ove  them  back,  and  continued 
t3  press  hotly  forward,  in  the  full  confidence  of  victory.  But, 
ariid  the  general  consternation  of  the  Syracusans  and  their  con- 
federates, one  body  of  infantry  stood  firm.  This  was  a  brigade 
of  their  Boeotian  allies,  which  was  posted  low  down  the  slope  of 
Epipolaj,  outside  the  city  walls.  Coolly  and  steadily  the  Boeo- 
tian infantry  formed  their  line,  and,  undismayed  by  the  current 
of  flight  around  them,  advanced  against  the  advancing  Atheni- 
ans. This  was  the  crisis  of  the  battle.  But  the  Athenian  van 
was  disorganized  by  its  own  previous  successes ;  and,  yielding  to 
the  unexpected  charge  thus  made  en  it  by  troops  in  perfect  or- 
der, and  of  the  most  obstinate  courage,  it  was  driven  back  in 
confusion  upon  the  other  divisions  of  the  army,  that  still  contin- 
ued to  press  forward.  When  once  the  tide  was  thus  turned,  the 
Syracusans  passed  rapidly  from  the  extreme  of  panic  to  the  ex- 
treme of  vengeful  daring,  and  with  all  their  forces  they  now  fierce- 
ly assailed  the  embarrassed  and  receding  Athenians.  In  vain  did 
tlie  officers  of  the  latter  strive  to  re-form  their  line.  Amid  the 
din  and  the  shouting  of  the  fight,  and  the  confusion  inseparable 
upon  a  night  engagement,  especially  one  where  many  thousand 
combatants  were  pent  and  whirled  together  in  a  narrow^  and  un- 
even area,  the  necessary  maneuvers  were  impracticable  ;  and 
though  many  companies  still  fought  on  desperately,  wherever 
the  moonlight  showed  them  the  semblance  of  a  foe,*  they  fought 
without  concert  or  subordination  ;  and  not  unfrequently,  amid  the 
deadly  chaos,  Athenian  troops  assailed  each  other.     Keeping  their 

*  'Hf  nev  yap  ae^-^vrj  Aa/xTrpa,  iupuv  de  oOrwf  d/lAv/loDf,  tif  ev  aeT^Tjvi)  e'lKOi 
r^v  jiEv  oxpiv  Tov  atJ^aroQ  irpoopqv  rr/v  6e  yvucnv  tov  oIkcIov  inziaTuadai.— 
Thdc,  lib  vii.,  44.  Compare  Tacitus's  description  of  the  night  engage- 
ment in  the  civil  war  between  Vespasian  and  Vitellius.  "  Neutro  inclina- 
»erat  fortuna,  donee  aduita  nocte,  luna  ostcndcret  aries,  falUretque." — Hist.. 
Uk>.  iii.,  sec.  23. 


66  DEFEAT     3F     THE     ATHFNIANS,     ETC. 

ranks  close,  the  Syracusans  and  their  allies  pressed  on  against 
the  disorganized  masses  of  the  besiegers,  and  at  length  drovj 
them,  with  heavy  slaughter,  over  the  chffs,  which  an  hour  or 
two  before  they  had  scaled  full  of  hope,  and  apparently  certain 
of  success. 

Th'.s  defeat  was  decisive  of  the  event  of  the  siege.  The  Athe- 
nians afterward  ?:ruggled  only  to  protect  themselves  from  the 
vengeance  which  the  Sj'^racusans  sought  to  wreak  in  the  com- 
plete destruction  of  their  invaders.  Never,  however,  was  venge- 
ance more  complete  and  terrible.  A  series  of  sea-fights  fol- 
lowed, in  which  the  Athenian  galleys  were  utterly  destroyed  oi 
captured.  The  mariners  and  soldiers  w^ho  escaped  death  in  dis- 
astrous engagements,  and  a  vain  attempt  to  force  a  retreat  into 
the  interior  of  the  island,  became  prisoners  of  war ;  Nicias  and 
Demosthenes  were  put  to  death  in  cold  blood,  and  their  men 
either  perished  miserably  in  the  Syracusan  dungeons,  or  were 
Bold  into  slavery  to  the  very  persons  whom,  in  their  prids  of 
power,  they  had  crossed  the  seas  to  enslave. 

All  danger  from  Athens  to  the  independent  nations  of  the 
West  was  now  forever  at  an  end.  She,  indeed,  continued  to 
stiniggle  against  her  combined  enemies  and  revolted  allies  with 
unparalleled  gallantry,  and  many  more  years  of  varying  warfare 
passed  away  before  she  surrendered  to  their  arms.  But  no  suc- 
cess in  subsequent  contests  could  ever  have  restored  her  to  the 
pre-eminence  in  enterprise,  resources,  and  maritime  skill  which 
she  had  acquired  before  her  fatal  reverses  in  Sicily.  Nor  among 
the  rival  Greek  republics,  whom  her  own  rashness  aided  to  crush 
her,  was  there  any  capable  of  reorganizing  her  empire,  or  resum' 
ing  her  schemes  of  conquest.  The  dominion  of  "Western  Europe 
was  left  for  Rome  and  Carthage  to  dispute  two  centuries  latei, 
in  conflicts  still  more  terrible,  and  with  even  higher  displays  of 
military  daring  and  genius  than  Athens  had  iritneesed  e/ther  ifl 
her  lise,  her  meridian,  or  her  faJ.. 


SYNOPSIS     OF     INTERVENING     EVENTS.  fi7 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  iai;  Defeat  of  the  Athe- 
nians AT  Syracuse  and  the  Battle  of  Arbela. 

412  B.C.  Many  of  the  subject  allies  of  Athens  revolt  from 
her  on  her  disasters  before  Syracuse  being  known  ;  the  seat  of 
war  is  transferred  to  the  Hellespont  and  eastern  side  of  the 
^gsean. 

410.  The  Carthaginians  attempt  to  make  conquests  in  Siciiy 

407.  Cyrus  the  Younger  is  sent  by  the  King  of  Persia  to  take 
the  government  of  all  the  maritime  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
with  orders  to  help  the  Laceda3moniau  fleet  against  the  Athenian. 

406.  Agrigentum  taken  by  the  Carthaginians. 

405.  The  last  Athenian  fleet  destroyed  by  Lysander  at  ^EgoS' 
potami.  Athens  closely  besieged.  Rise  of  the  power  of  Dionys- 
ius  at  Syracuse. 

404.  Athens  surrenders.  End  of  the  Peloponnesian  war. 
The  ascendency  of  Sparta  complete  throughout  G-reece. 

403.  Thrasybulus,  aided  by  the  Thebans  and  with  the  conni- 
vance of  one  of  the  Spartan  kings,  liberates  Athens  from  the 
Thirty  Tyrants,  and  restores  the  democracy. 

401.  Cyrus  the  Younger  commences  his  expedition  into  Up- 
per Asia  to  dethrone  his  brother  Artaxerxes  Mnemon.  He  takes 
with  him  an  auxiliary  force  of  ten  thousand  Greeks.  He  is  kill- 
ed in  battle  at  Cunaxa,  and  the  ten  thousand,  led  by  Xenophon, 
eflbct  their  retreat  in  spite  of  the  Persian  armies  and  the  natural 
obstacles  of  their  march. 

399.  In  this  and  the  five  following  years,  the  Lacedajmonians, 
under  Ageeilaus  and  other  commanders,  cany  on  war  against  the 
Persian  satraps  in  Asia  Minor. 

396.  Syracuse  besieged  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  successfully 
defended  by  Dionysius. 

394.  Rome  makes  her  first  great  stride  in  the  career  of  con- 
quest by  the  capture  of  Veii. 

393.  The  Athenian  admiral,  Conon,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Persian  satrap  Pharnabazus,  defeats  the  Lacedajmonian  fleet  off 
C nidus,  and  restores  the  fortifications  of  Athens.  Several  of  the 
former  aUies  of  Sparta  in  Greece  carry  on  hostilities  against  her. 

3b8.  The  nations  of  Northern  Europe  now  fust  appear  in  au- 
ihenlic  history.     The  Gauls  overrun  great  part  cf  Italy  and  burn 


68  SYNOPSIS     OF     INTERVENING     E/ENTS. 

Rome.  Rome  recovers  from  the  blow,  but  her  old  enemies  ttie 
^quians  and  Volscians  are  left  completely  crushed  by  the  Gal- 
lic invaders. 

387.  The  peace  of  Antalcidas  is  concluded  among  the  Greeks 
by  the  mediation,  and  under  the  sanction,  of  the  Persian  king. 

378  lo  361.  Fresh  wars  in  Greece.  Epaminondas  raises 
Thebes  to  be  the  leading  state  of  Greece,  and  the  supremacy  of 
Sparta  is  destroyed  at  the  battle  of  Leuctra.  Epaminondas  is 
killed  in  gaining  the  victory  of  Mantinea,  and  the  power  of 
Thebes  falls  with  him.  The  Athenians  attempt  a  balancing 
ystem  between  Sparta  and  Thebes. 

359.  Philip  becomes  king  of  Macedon. 

357.  The  Social  War  breaks  out  in  Greece,  and  lasts  three 
years.  Its  result  checks  the  attempt  of  Athens  to  regain  her  old 
maritime  empire. 

356.  Alexander  the  Great  is  bom. 

343.  Rome  begins  her  wars  with  the  Samnites  :  they  extend 
over  a  period  of  fifty  years.  The  end  of  this  obstinate  contest  ia 
to  secure  for  her  the  dominion  of  Italy. 

340.  Fresh  attempts  of  the  Cartliaginians  upon  Syracuse 
Timoleon  defeats  them  with  great  slaughter. 

338.  Philip  defeats  the  confederate  armies  of  Athens  and 
Thebes  at  Chaeronea,  and  the  Macedonian  supremacy  over  Greece 
is  firmly  established. 

336.  Philip  is  assassinated,  and  Alexander  the  Great  becomes 
king  of  Macedon.  He  gains  several  victories  over  the  northern 
barbarians  who  had  attacked  Macedonia,  and  destroys  Thebes, 
which,  in  conjunction  with  Athens,  had  taken  up  arms  against 
the  Macedonians. 

334.  Alexander  passes  the  Hellespont. 


BATTL£UFAIIB£LA.  6f 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    ARBELA,    B.C.    331. 

Alexander  deserves  the  glory  which  he  has  enjoyed  for  so  manv  rentQ' 
ties  and  anriong  all  nations:  but  what  if  he  had  been  beaten  at  Arbela, 
having  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  and  the  deserts  in  his  rear,  without  any 
•trong  places  of  refuge,  nine  hundred  leagues  from  Macedonia  ! — Napo- 
leon. 

Asia  beheld  with  astonishment  and  awe  the  uninterrupted  progress  of  a 
bero,  the  sweep  of  whose  conquests  was  as  wide  and  rapid  as  that  of  her 
own  barbaric  kings,  or  of  the  Scythian  or  Chaldaan  hordes  ;  but,  far  un 
hke  the  transient  whirlwinds  of  Asiatic  warfare,  the  advance  of  the  Mac- 
edonian leader  was  no  less  deliberate  than  rapid  :  at  every  step  the  Greek 
power  took  root,  and  the  language  and  the  civilization  of  Greece  were 
planted  from  the  shores  of  the  yEgaean  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  from  the 
Caspian  and  the  great  Hyrcanian  plain  to  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile;  to 
exist  actually  for  nearly  a  thousand  years,  and  in  their  effects  to  endure 
forever. — Arnold. 

A  LONG  and  not  uninstructive  list  might  be  made  out  of  illus- 
trious men  whose  characters  have  been  vindicated  during  recent 
times  from  aspersions  which  for  centuries  had  been  thrown  on 
them.  The  spirit  of  modern  inquiry,  and  the  tendency  of  mod- 
ern scholarship,  both  of  which  are  often  said  to  he  solely  nega* 
live  and  destructive,  have,  in  truth,  restored  to  splendor,  and  al- 
most created  anew,  far  more  than  they  have  assailed  with  cen. 
sure,  or  dismissed  from  consideration  as  unreal.  The  truth  of 
many  a  brilliant  narrative  of  brilliant  exploits  has  of  late  yean 
been  triumphantly  demonstrated,  and  the  shallowness  of  the  skep- 
tical scofis  with  which  little  minds  have  carped  at  the  great 
minds  of  antiquity  has  been  in  many  instances  decisively  exposed. 
The  laws,  the  politics,  and  the  lines  of  action  adopted  or  rec- 
ommended by  eminent  men  and  powerful  nations  have  been  ex- 
amined with  keener  investigation,  and  considered  with  more 
eomprehensivo  judgment  than  formerly  were  brought  to  bear  on 
these  subjects  The  result  has  been  at  least  as  often  favorable 
as  unfavorable  to  the  persons  and  the  states  so  scrutinized,  and 
many  an  oft-repeated  slander  against  both  measures  and  n.eD 
has  thus  been  silenced,  we  may  hope  forever. 


V  Battle   of   arbela. 

The  veracity  of  Herodotus,  the  pure  patriotism  of  Ptiricks,  of 
Demosthenes,  aud  of  the  Gracchi,  the  wisdom  of  Clisthenes  and 
of  Licinius  as  constitutional  reformers,  may  be  mentioned  as  facts 
which  recent  writers  have  cleared  from  unjust  suspicion  and  cen- 
sure. And  it  might  be  easily  shown  that  the  defensive  tenden- 
cy, which  distinguishes  the  present  and  recent  great  writers  of 
Germany,  France,  and  England,  has  been  equally  manifested  n 
the  spirit  in  which  they  have  treated  the  heroes  of  thought  and 
heroes  of  action  who  lived  during  what  we  term  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  whom  it  was  so  long  the  fashion  to  sneer  at  or  neglect. 

The  name  of  the  victor  of  Arbela  has  led  to  these  reflections  ; 
for,  although  the  rapidity  and  extent  of  Alexander's  conquests 
have  through  all  ages  challenged  admiration  and  amazement, 
the  grandeur  of  genius  which  he  displayed  in  his  schemes  of 
commerce,  civilization,  and  of  comprehensive  union  and  unitjr 
among  nations,  has,  until  lately,  been  comparatively  unhonored. 
This  long-continued  depreciation  was  of  early  date.  The  ancient; 
rhetoricians — a  class  of  babblers,  a  school  for  lies  and  scandal, 
as  Niebuhr  justly  termed  them — chose,  among  the  stock  themes 
foi  their  commonplaces,  the  character  and  exploits  of  Alexander. 
They  had  their  followers  in  every  age ;  and,  until  a  very  recent 
period,  all  who  wished  to  "point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale," 
about  unreasoning  ambition,  extravagant  pride,  and  the  formi 
dable  phrensies  of  free  will  when  leagued  with  free  power,  have 
never  failed  to  blazon  forth  the  so-called  madman  of  Macedonia 
as  one  of  the  most  glaring  examples.  Without  doubt,  many  of 
these  writers  adopted  with  implicit  credence  traditional  ideas, 
and  supposed,  with  uninquiring  philanthropy,  that  in  blackening 
Alexander  they  were  doing  humanity  good  service.  But  also, 
•without  doubt,  many  of  his  assailants,  like  those  of  other  great 
•nen,  have  been  mainly  instigated  by  "  that  strongest  of  all  an- 
tipathies, the  antipathy  of  \  second-rate  mind  to  a  first-rate 
one,"*  and  by  the  envy  which  talent  too  often  bears  to  genius. 

Arrian,  who  wrote  his  history  of  Alexander  when  Hadrian 
was  einpcror  of  the  Roman  world,  and  when  the  spii'it  of  deela- 
mat.on  and  dogmalism  was  at  its  full  height,  but  who  was  him- 
pelf,  unlike  the  dreaming  pedants  of  the  schools,  a  statesman  and 
a  soldier  of  practical  and  proved  ability,  well  rebuked  the  ma 
levolent  aspersions  which  he  heard  continually  thrown  upon  the 
*  De  Stael. 


BATTLEOFARBELA.  /\ 

mimory  ot  the  great  conqueror  of  the  East.  He  trul}'  says, 
"Let  the  man  who  speaks  evil  of"  Alexander  not  irerely  bring 
forward  those  passages  of  Alexander's  life  which  were  really 
evil,  but  let  him  collect  and  review  all  the  actions  of  Alexander, 
and  then  let  him  thoroughly  consider  first  who  and  what  manner 
of  man  he  himself"  is,  and  what  has  been  his  own  career  ;  and 
then  let  him  consider  who  and  what  manner  of  man  Alexander 
was,  and  to  what  an  eminence  of  human  grandeur  he  arrived. 
Let  him  consider  that  Alexander  was  a  king,  and  the  undisputed 
lord  of  the  two  continents,  and  that  his  name  is  renowned 
throughout  the  whole  earth.  Let  the  evil-speaker  against  Al 
exander  bear  all  this  in  mind,  and  then  let  him  reflect  on  his 
own  insignificance,  the  pettiness  of  his  own  circumstances  and 
affairs,  and  the  blunders  that  he  makes  about  these,  paltry  and 
trifling  as  they  are.  Let  him  then  ask  himself  whether  he  is  a 
fit  person  to  censure  and  revile  such  a  man  as  Alexander.  I 
believe  that  there  was  in  his  time  no  nation  of  men,  no  citj',  nay, 
no  single  individual  with  whom  Alexander's  name  had  not  be- 
come a  familiar  word.  I  therefore  hold  that  such  a  man,  who 
w^as  like  no  ordinary  mortal,  was  not  born  into  the  world  with- 
out some  special  providence.''* 

And  one  of  the  most  distinguished  soldiers  and  writers  of  oui 
own  nation.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  though  he  failed  to  estimate 
justly  the  full  merits  of  Alexander,  has  expressed  his  sense  of 
the  grandeur  of  the  part  played  in  the  world  by  "  the  great 
Emathian  conqueror"  in  language  that  well  deserves  quotation 

"  So  much  hath  the  spirit  of  some  one  man  excelled  as  it  hath 
undertaken  and  effected  the  alteration  of  the  greatest  states  and 
commonweals,  the  erection  of  monarchies,  the  conquest  of  king- 
doms and  empires,  guided  handfuls  of  men  against  multitudes 
of  equal  bodily  strength,  contrived  victories  beyond  all  hope  and 
discourse  of  reason,  converted  the  fearful  passions  of  his  own  fol- 
lowers into  magnanimity,  and  the  valor  of  his  enemies  into  cow- 
ardice ;  such  spirits  have  been  stirred  up  in  sundry  ages  of  the 
world,  and  in  divers  parts  thereof,  to  erect  and  cast  down  again, 
to  estabhsh  and  to  destroy,  and  to  bring  all  things,  persons,  and 
states  to  the  same  certain  ends,  which  the  infinite  spirit  of  the 
Zhiiversal,  piercing,  moving,  and  governing  all  things,  hath  or- 
iaiued.  Certainly,  the  things  that  this  king  did  were  aiarvol- 
•  Arri&n  lib.  vii.,  ad  finem. 


iTS  BATTLEOFARBELA. 

BUS,  and  would  hardly  have  heen  undertaken  by  any  one  else  ; 
and  though  his  father  had  determined  to  have  invaded  the  Less- 
er Asia,  it  is  like  enough  that  he  would  have  contented  himself 
with  some  part  thereof,  and  not  have  discovered  the  river  of  In- 
dus, as  this  man  did."* 

<X  higher  authority  than  either  Arrian  or  Ualeigh  may  now 
be  referred  to  by  those  who  wish  to  know  the  real  merit  of  Al 
exaidir  as  a  general,  and  how  far  the  commonplace  assertions 
are  true  that  his  successes  were  the  mere  results  of  fortunate 
rashness  and  unreasoning  pugnacity.  Napoleon  selected  Alex* 
ander  as  one  of  the  seven  greatest  generals  whose  noble  deeds 
history  has  handed  down  to  us,  and  from  the  study  of  whose 
campaigns  the  principles  of  war  are  to  be  learned.  The  critique 
of  the  greatest  conqueror  of  modern  times  on  the  military  career 
of  the  great  conqueror  of  the  Old  World  is  no  less  graphic  than 
true. 

'•  Alexander  crossed  the  Dardanelles  334  B.C.,  with  an  army 
of  about  forty  thousand  men,  of  which  one  eighth  was  cavalry ; 
he  forced  the  passage  of  the  Granicus  in  opposition  to  an  army 
under  Memnon,  the  Greek,  who  commanded  for  Darius  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  and  he  spent  the  whole  of  the  year  333  in  estab- 
lishing his  power  in  Asia  Minor.  He  was  seconded  by  the  Greek 
colonies,  who  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  the  Black  Sea  and  on  the 
Mediterranean,  and  in  Sardis,  Ephesus,  Tarsus,  Miletus,  &c.  The 
kings  of  Persia  left  their  provinces  and  towns  to  be  governed  ac- 
cording to  their  own  particular  laws.  Their  empire  was  a  union 
of  confederated  states,  and  did  not  form  one  nation ;  this  facili- 
tated its  conquest.  As  Alexander  only  wished  for  the  throne  of 
the  monarch,  he  easily  effected  the  change  by  respecting  the  cus- 
toms, manners,  and  laws  of  the  people,  who  experienced  no  change 
in  their  condition. 

"  In  the  year  332  he  met  with  Darius  at  the  head  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  who  had  taken  up  a  position  near  Tarsus,  on  the 
bmks  of  the  Lssus,  in  the  province  of  Cilicia.  He  defeated  him, 
entered  Syria,  took  Damascus,  which  contained  all  the  riches  of 
the  Great  King,  and  laid  siege  to  Tyre.  This  superb  metropolis 
of  the  commerce  of  the  world  detained  him  nine  months.  He 
look  Gaza  after  a  siege  of  two  months  ;  crossed  tb«  Desert  in 
leven  days  ;  entered  Pelusium  and  Memphis,  and  f'^/inded  Alex 
•  ''The  Historie  of  the  World,"  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Knight,  p.  648. 


I 


BATILEOFARBELA  73 

andria.  In  less  than  two  years,  after  two  battles  and  four  or  five 
sieges,  the  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  from  Pliasis  to  Byzantium, 
those  of  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  Alexandria,  all  Asia  Minor. 
Syria,  and  Egypt,  had  submitted  to  his  arms. 

"  In  331  he  repassed  the  Desert,  encamped  in  Tyre,  recrossed 
Syria,  entered  Damascus,  passed  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and 
defeated  Darius  on  the  field  of  Arbela,  when  he  was  at  the  head 
of  a  still  stronger  army  than  that  which  he  commanded  on  the 
Issm,  and  Babylon  opened  her  gates  to  him.  In  330  he  overran 
Susa  and  took  that  city,  Persepolis,  and  Pasargada,  which  con- 
tained the  tomb  of  Cyrus.  In  329  he  directed  his  course  north- 
ward, entered  Ecbatana,  and  extended  his  conquests  to  the  coasts 
of  the  Caspian,  punished  Bessus,  the  cowardly  assassin  of  Darius, 
penetrated  into  Scythia,  and  subdued  the  Scythians.  In  328  he 
forced  the  passage  of  the  Oxus,  received  sixteen  thousand  recruits 
from  Macedonia,  and  reduced  the  neighboring  people  to  subjec- 
tion. In  327  he  crossed  the  Indus,  vanquished  Porus  in  a  pitched 
battle,  took  him  prisoner,  and  treated  him  as  a  king.  He  con- 
templated passing  the  Ganges,  but  his  army  refused.  He  sailed 
down  the  Indus,  in  the  year  326,  with  eight  hundred  vessels  ; 
having  arrived  at  the  ocean,  he  sent  Nearchus  with  a  fleet  to  run 
along  the  coasts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Persian  Gulf  as 
far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  In  325  he  took  sixty  days 
in  crossing  from  Gedrosia,  entered  Keramania,  returned  to  Pasar- 
gada, Persepolis,  and  Susa,  and  married  Statira,  the  daughtei 
of  Darius.  In  324  he  marched  once  more  to  the  north,  passed 
Ecbatana,  and  terminated  his  career  at  Babylon."* 

The  enduring  importance  of  Alexander's  conquests  is  to  be 
estimated,  not  by  the  duration  of  his  own  life  and  empire,  or  even 
by  the  duration  of  the  kingdoms  which  his  generals  after  his  death 
formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  that  mighty  dominion.  In  every 
region  of  the  world  that  he  traversed,  Alexander  planted  Greek 
settlements  and  founded  cities,  in  the  populations  of  which  th< 
Greek  element  at  once  asserted  its  predominance.  Among  his 
successors,  th(!  Seleucida)  and  the  Ptolemies  imitated  their  grr.at 
captain  in  blending  schemes  of  civilization,  of  commercial  inler- 
coursC;  and  of  literary  and  scientific  research  with  all  their  enter- 
prises of  militaiy  aggrandizement  and  witli  all  their  systems  of 
civil  administration.  Such  was  the  ascendency  of  the  Greek 
•  See  Count  Montholon's  "  Memoirs  of  Napoleon." 
T) 


74  BATTLEOFARBELA. 

g'enius,  so  wonderfully  comprehensive  and  assimilaling  was  the 
cultivation  vi'hich  it  introduced,  that,  within  thirty  years  aftei 
A-lexander  crossed  the  Hellespont,  the  Greek  language  was  spoken 
in  every  country  from  the  shores  of  the  iEgsean  to  the  Indus,  and 
also  throughout  Eg\'pt — not,  indeed,  wholly  to  the  extirpation  of 
the  native  dialects,  but  it  became  the  language  of  every  court,  ol 
all  literature,  of  every  judicial  and  political  function,  and  formed 
a  medium  of  communication  among  the  many  myriads  of  man- 
kind inhabiting  these  large  portions  of  the  Old  World.*  Through- 
out Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  the  Hellenic  character  that 
was  thus  imparted  remained  in  full  vigor  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Mohammedan  conquests.  The  infinite  value  of  this  to  hu- 
manity in  the  highest  and  hohest  point  of  view  has  often  been 
pointed  out,  and  the  workings  of  the  finger  of  Providence  have 
been  gratefully  recognized  by  those  who  have  observed  how  the 
early  growth  and  progress  of  Christianity  were  aided  by  that  dif- 
fusion of  the  Greek  language  and  civilization  throughout  Asia 
Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  which  had  been  caused  by  the  Mace- 
donian conquest  of  the  East. 

In  Upper  Asia,  beyond  the  Euphrates,  the  direct  and  material 
mfluence  of  Greek  ascendency  was  more  short-lived.  Yet,  dur 
ing  the  existence  of  the  Hellenic  kingdoms  in  these  regions,  es- 
pecially of  the  Greek  kingdom  of  Bactria,  the  modern  Bokhara, 
very  important  efi'ects  were  produced  on  the  intellectual  tenden- 
cies and  tastes  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  countries,  and  of  the 
adjacent  ones,  by  the  animating  contact  of  the  Grecian  spirit. 
Much  of  Hindoo  science  and  philosophy,  much  of  the  literature 
of  the  later  Persian  kingdom  of  the  Arsacidse,  either  originated 
from,  or  was  largely  modified  by,  Grecian  influences.  So,  also, 
the  learning  and  science  of  the  Arabians  were  in  a  far  less  de- 
gree the  result  of  original  invention  and  genius,  than  the  repro- 
duction, in  an  altered  form,  of  the  Greeji  philosophy  and  th 
Greek  loie,  acquired  by  the  Saracenic  conquerors,  together  wilh 
their  acquisition  of  the  provinces  which  Alexander  had  subjii 
gated,  nearly  a  thousand  years  before  the  armed  disciples  of  M  ) 
hammed  commenced  their  career  in  the  East.  It  is  well  know  u 
that  Western  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  drew  its  philosophy, 
itu  arts,  and  its  science  principally  from  Arabian  teachers.  And 
thus  we  see  how  the  intellectual  influence  of  ancient  Greece, 
•  See  Arnold,  Hist  Rome,  ii.,  p  406. 


BATTLE     OF     ARBELA. 


poured  Oil  the  Eastern  world  by  Alexander's  vict.irios,  and  l;;en 
brought  back  to  bear  on  Mediaeval  Europe  by  the  spread  o/  ihe 
Saxacenic  powers,  has  exerted  its  action  on  the  elements  of  mod- 
ern civilization  by  this  powerful  though  indirect  channel,  as  well 
as  by  the  more  obvious  effects  of  the  remnants  of  classic  civiliza- 
tion whieh  survived  in  Italy,  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Spain,  after  the 
irru]itioii  of  the  Germanic  nations.* 

These  considerations  invest  the  Macedonian  triumphs  in  the 
East  with  never-dying  interest,  such  as  the  most  showy  and  s'iu 
guinary  successes  of  mere  "  low  ambition  and  the  pride  of  kings 
however  they  may  dazzle  for  a  moment,  can  never  retain  with 
posterity  Whether  the  old  Persian  empire  which  Cyrus  found- 
ed could  have  survived  much  longer  than  it  did,  even  if  Darius 
had  been  victorious  at  Arbela,  may  safely  be  disputed.  That 
ancient  dominion,  like  the  Turkish  at  the  present  time,  labored 
under  every  cause  of  decay  and  dissolution.  The  satraps,  like 
the  modem  pashaws,  continually  rebelled  against  the  central 
power,  and  Egypt  in  particular  was  almost  always  in  a  state  of 
insurrection  against  its  nominal  sovereign.  There  was  no  longer 
any  ellective  central  control,  or  any  internal  principle  of  unitj 
fused  through  the  huge  mass  of  the  empire,  and  binding  it  to- 
gether. Persia  was  evidently  about  to  fall ;  but,  had  it  not  been 
for  Alexander's  invasion  of  Asia,  she  would  most  probably  have 
fallen  beneath  some  other  Oriental  power,  as  Media  and  Babylon 
had  formerly  fallen  before  herself,  and  as,  in  after  times,  the  Par 
thian  supremacy  gave  way  to  the  revived  ascendency  of  Persia 
in  the  East,  under  the  sceptres  of  the  Arsacidse.  A  revolution 
that  merely  substituted  one  Eastern  power  for  another  would 
have  been  utterly  barren  and  unprofitable  to  mankind. 

Alexander's  victory  at  Arbela  not  only  overthrew  an  Oriental 
dynasty,  but  established  European  rulers  in  its  stead.  It  bri'k* 
the  monotony  of  the  Eastern  world  by  the  impression  of  Western 
energy  and  superior  civilization,  even  as  England's  present  mis- 
sion is  to  break  up  the  mental  and  moral  stagnation  of  India  and 
I'athay  by  pouring  upon  and  through  them  the  impulsive  cui- 
TWit  of  Anglo-Saxon  commerce  and  conquest. 

Arbela,  the  city  which  has  furnished  its  name  to  the  decisive 
battle  vhich  gave  Asia   to  Alexander,  lies  more  than  twenty 
uiiles  frjn   the  actual  scene  of  conflict.     The  little  village,  then 
♦  See  Humboldt's  "Cosmos." 


76  BATTLEOFARBELA. 

aaiDed  Gaiigamela,  is  close  to  the  spot  where  the  armies  rrer. 
but  has  ceded  the  honor  of  naming  the  battle  to  its  more  eupho- 
nious neighbor.  Gaugamela  is  situate  in  one  of  the  wide  plains 
that  lie  between  the  Tigris  and  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan.  A 
few  undulating  hillocks  diversify  the  surface  of  this  sandy  track  ; 
but  the  ground  is  generally  level,  and  admirably  qualified  for  thf 
evolutions  of  cavalrj'^,  and  also  calculated  to  give  the  larger  ot 
two  armies  the  full  advantage  of  numerical  superiority.  The 
Persian  king  (who,  before  he  came  to  the  throne,  had  proved  his 
personal  valor  as  a  soldier  and  his  skill  as  a  general)  had  wisely 
selected  this  region  for  the  third  and  decisive  encounter  between 
his  forces  and  the  invader.  The  previous  defeats  of  his  troops, 
however  severe  they  had  been,  were  not  looked  on  as  irreparable. 
The  Granicus  had  been  fought  by  his  generals  rashly  and  with- 
out mutual  concert  ;  and,  though  Darius  himsell"  had  command- 
ed and  been  beaten  at  Issus,  that  defeat  might  be  attributed  to 
the  disadvantageous  nature  of  the  ground,  where,  cooped  up  be- 
tween the  mountains,  the  river,  and  the  sea,  the  numbers  of  the 
Persians  confused  and  clogged  alike  the  general's  skill  and  the 
soldiers'  prowess,  and  their  very  strength  had  been  made  their 
weakness.  Here,  on  the  broad  plains  of  Kurdistan,  there  was 
scope  for  Asia's  largest  host  to  array  its  lines,  to  wheel,  to  skirmish, 
to  condense  or  expand  its  squadrons,  to  maneuver,  and  to  charge 
at  will.  Should  Alexander  and  his  scanty  band  dare  to  plunge 
into  that  living  sea  of  war,  their  destruction  seemed  inevitable. 
Darius  felt,  however,  the  critical  nature  to  himself  as  well  as 
to  his  adversary  of  the  coming  encounter.  He  could  not  hope 
to  retrieve  the  consequences  of  a  third  overthrow.  The  great 
cities  of  Mesopotamia  and  Upper  Asia,  the  central  provinces  of 
the  Persian  empire,  were  certain  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  vic- 
tor. Darius  knew  also  the  Asiatic  character  well  enough  to  be 
aware  how  it  yields  to  the  2ircstige  of  success  and  the  apparent 
career  of  destiny.  He  felt  that  the  diadem  was  now  cither  to 
be  firmly  replaced  on  his  own  brow,  or  to  be  irrevocably  trans- 
ffjjred  to  the  head  of  his  European  conqueror.  He,  therefore, 
(luring  the  long  interval  lelt  him  after  the  battle  of  Issus,  Avhile 
Alexander  was  subjugating  Syria  and  Egypt,  assiduously  busicsd 
hirrself  in  selecting  the  best  troops  which  his  vast  empire  sup- 
plied, and  ia  training  his  varied  forces  to  act  togethei  with  some 
uniformity  of  discipline  and  system. 


B  ATTL  E     OF     AR  BE  L  A.  fS 

The  hardy  mountaineers  of  Afghanistan,  Bokhaia  Khiva,  and 
Vhil'et  were  then,  as  at  present,  far  different  to  the  generahty  ol 
A.si;)Ucs  in  warHke  spiri<  and  endurance.  From  these  districts 
Dan  us  collected  large  bodies  of  admirable  infantry;  and  tlie 
couutriep  of  the  modern  Kurds  and  Turkomans  supplied,  as  thej 
ilo  now,  squadrons  of  horsemen,  hardy,  skillful,  bold,  and  trained 
to  a  life  of  constant  activity  and  warfare.  It  is  not  uninteresting 
to  notice  that  the  ancestors  of  our  own  late  enemies,  the  Sikhs, 
Berved  as  alhes  of  Darius  against  the  Macedonians.  They  are 
spoken  of  in  Arrian  as  Indians  who  dwelt  near  Bactria.  They 
were  attached  to  the  troops  of  that  satrapy,  and  their  cavalry 
was  one  of  the  rriost  formidable  forces  in  the  whole  Persian  army. 

Besides  these  picked  troops,  contingents  also  came  in  from  the 
numerous  other  provinces  that  yet  obeyed  the  Great  King.  Al- 
together, the  horse  are  said  to  have  been  forty  thousand,  the 
scythe-bearing  chariots  two  hundred,  and  the  armed  elephants 
fifteen  in  number.  The  amount  of  the  infantry  is  uncertain ; 
but  the  knowledge  which  both  ancient  and  modern  times  supply 
of  the  usual  character  of  Oriental  armies,  and  of  their  popula- 
tions of  camp-followers,  may  warrant  us  in  believing  that  many 
myriads  were  prepared  to  fight,  or  to  encumber  those  who  fought 
for  the  last  Darius. 

The  position  of  the  Persian  king  near  Mesopotamia  was  chosen 
with  great  military  skill.  It  was  certain  that  Alexander,  on 
his  return  from  Egypt,  must  march  northward  along  the  Syrian 
coast  before  he  attacked  the  central  provinces  of  the  Persian  em- 
pire. A  direct  eastward  march  from  the  lower  part  of  Palestine 
across  the  great  Syrian  Desert  was  then,  as  ever,  utterly  imprac- 
ticable. Marching  eastward  from  Syria,  Alexander  would,  on 
crossing  the  Euphrates,  arrive  at  the  vast  Mesopotamiau  plains. 
The  wealthy  capitals  of  the  empire,  Babylon,  Susa,  and  Persepo- 
lis,  would  then  lie  to  the  south  ;  and  if  he  marched  down  through 
Mesopotamia  to  attack  them,  Darius  might  reasonably  hope  to 
follow  the  Macedonians  with  his  immense  force  of  cavalry,  and, 
without  even  risking  a  pitched  battle,  to  harass  and  finally  over- 
whelm them.  We  may  remember  that  three  centuries  alter- 
ward  a  Roman  army  under  Crassus  M-as  thus  actually  deBtroyed 
by  tlie  Oriental  arch  srs  and  horsemen  in  these  very  plains,*  and 
that  th<;  ancestors  ol  the  Parthians  who  tlms  vanquished  tlio  Ro> 
•  See  Mitford 


78  BATTLEOFARBELA. 

mail  legions  seived  by  thousands  under  King  Dariiis.  If,  on  Uie 
contrary,  Alexander  should  defer  his  march  against  Babylon,  and 
first  seek  an  encounter  with  the  Persian  army,  the  countiy  on 
each  side  of  the  Tigris  in  this  latitude  was  highly  advantageous 
for  such  an  army  as  Darius  commanded,  and  he  had  close  in  his 
rear  the  mountainous  districts  of  Northern  Media,  where  he  him- 
self had  in  early  life  been  satrap,  where  he  had  acquired  reputa- 
Uoii  as  a  soldier  and  a  general,  and  where  he  justly  expected  to 
find  loyalty  to  his  person,  and  a  safe  refuge  in  case  of  defeat.* 

His  great  antagonist  came  on  across  the  Euphrates  against 
him,  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  Arrian,  copying  from  the 
journals  of  Macedonian  officers,  states  to  have  consisted  of  forty 
thousand  foot  and  seven  thousand  horse.  In  studying  the  cam- 
paigns of  Alexander,  we  possess  the  peculiar  advantage  of  de- 
riving our  information  from  two  of  Alexander's  generals  of  divis- 
ion, who  bore  an  important  part  in  all  his  enterprises.  Aristo- 
bulus  and  Ptolemy  (who  afterward  became  king  of  Egypt)  kepi 
regular  journals  of  the  military  events  which  they  witnessed,  and 
these  journals  were  in  the  possession  of  Arrian  when  he  drew  u^ 
his  history  of  Alexander's  expedition.  The  high  character  of  Ar 
rian  for  integrity  makes  us  confident  that  he  used  them  fairly, 
and  his  comments  on  the  occasional  discrepancies  between  the 
two  Macedonian  narratives  prove  that  he  used  them  sensibly 
He  frequently  quotes  the  very  words  of  his  authorities  ;  and  his? 
histoiy  thus  acquires  a  charm  such  as  very  few  ancient  or  mod 
em  military  narratives  possess.  The  anecdotes  and  expressions 
which  he  records  we  fairly  believe  to  be  genuine,  and  not  to  be 
the  coinage  of  a  rhetorician,  like  those  in  Curtius.  In  fact,  in 
reading  Arrian,  we  read  General  Aristobulus  and  General  Ptol- 
emy on  the  campaigns  of  the  Macedonians,  and  it  is  like  read- 
ing General  Jomini  or  General  Foy  on  the  campaigns  of  the 
French. 

The  estimate  which  we  find  in  Arrian  of  the  strength  of  Alex- 

•  Mitford's  remarks  on  the  strategy  of  Darius  in  his  last  caniijaign  are 
vcr}  just.  After  liaving  heen  unduly  admired  as  an  historian.  Mitford  is 
now  unduly  neglected.  His  partiality,  and  his  deficiency  in  .scholarship 
have  heen  exposed  sufficiently  to  make  him  no  longer  a  dangerous  guide 
as  to  Greek  jjolitics,  while  the  clearness  and  lirilliancy  of  his  narrative, 
and  the  strong  common  sense  of  his  remarks  (where  his  party  prejudices 
do  not  interfore),  must  always  make  his  volumes  valuable  as  well  as  eo 
tsrtaining. 


BATTLEOFAKBELA.  7S 

antler's  amiy  seems  reasonable  enough,  when  we  take  into  ac 
count  hotli  the  losses  which  he  had  sustained  and  the  re-enforce- 
ments which  he  had  received  since  he  left  Europe.  Indeed,  tc 
Enghshmen,  who  know  with  what  mere  handfuls  of  men  oui 
own  generals  have,  at  Plassy,  at  Assaye,  at  Meeanee,  and  other 
Indian  battles,  routed  large  hosts  of  Asiatics,  the  disparity  of 
iiuinbers  that  we  read  of  in  the  victories  won  by  the  Macedoni- 
ans over  the  Persians  presents  nothing  incredible.  The  army 
which  Alexander  now  led  was  wholly  composed  of  veteran  troops 
in  the  highest  possible  state  of  equipment  and  discipline,  enthu- 
.siastically  devoted  to  their  leader,  and  full  of  confidence  m  his 
military  genius  and  his  victorious  destiny. 

The  celebrated  Macedonian  phalanx  formed  the  main  strength 
of  his  infantry.  This  force  had  been  raised  and  organized  by  hij« 
father  Phihp,  who,  on  his  accession  to  the  Macedonian  throne, 
needed  a  numerous  and  quickly-formed  army,  and  who,  by  length- 
ening the  spear  of  the  ordinary  Greek  phalanx,  and  increasing 
the  depth  of  the  files,  brought  the  tactic  of  armed  masses  to  the 
highest  extent  of  which  it  was  capable  with  such  materials  as 
he  possessed.*  He  formed  his  men  sixteen  deep,  and  placed  in 
their  grasp  the  sarissa,  as  the  Macedonian  pike  was  called,  which 
was  four-and-twenty  feet  in  length,  and  when  couched  for  action, 
reached  eighteen  feet  in  front  of  the  soldier  ;  so  that,  as  a  space 
of  about  two  feet  was  allowed  between  the  ranks,  the  spears  of 
the  five  files  behind  him  projected  in  front  of  each  front-rank 
man.  The  phalangite  soldier  was  fully  equipped  in  the  defen- 
sive armor  of  the  regular  Greek  infantry.  And  thus  the  phalanx 
presented  a  ponderous  and  bristling  mass,  which,  as  long  as  it& 
order  was  kept  compact,  was  sure  to  bear  doM'u  all  opposition. 
The  defects  of  such  an  organization  are  obvious,  and  were  proved 
in  after  years,  when  the  Macedonians  were  opposed  to  the  Roman 
legions.  But  it  is  clear  that  under  Alexander  the  phalanx  was 
not  the  cumbrous,  unwieldy  body  which  it  was  at  Cynoscephalaj 
and  Pydna.  His  men  were  veterans  ;  and  he  could  obtain  trom 
them  an  accuracy  of  movement  and  steadiness  of  evolution  such 
as  jirobably  the  recruits  of  his  father  would  only  have  rioundered 
in  attempting,  and  such  as  certainly  were  impracticable  in  the 
phalanx  when  handled  by  his  successors,  especially  as  uudei 
them  it  ceased  to  be  a  standing  force,  and  oecauie  only  a  inilitia.1 

*  See  Niebulir's  "  Hist,  of  Rome,"  vol.  iii    p  466.  [  See  Niebuhr 


bU  B  A  T  r  L  E     OF     ARBE  La. 

Under  Alexander  the  phalanx  consisted  of  an  aggregate  of  eight 
een  thousand  men,  w^ho  were  divided  into  six  brigades  of  three 
thousand  each.  These  were  again  subdivided  irto  rogiinenta 
and  companies  ;  and  the  men  were  carefully  trained  to  wheel, 
to  face  about,  to  take  more  ground,  or  to  close  up,  as  the  emei- 
gencies  of  the  battle  required.  Alexander  also  arrayed  troops 
armed  in  a  difierent  manner  in  the  intervals  of  the  regiments  of 
his  phalangites,  who  could  prevent  their  line  from  being  pierced 
and  tJieir  companies  taken  in  flank,  M^hen  the  nature  of  the 
ground  prevented  a  close  formation,  and  who  could  be  with- 
drawn when  a  favorable  opportunity  arrived  for  closing  up  the 
phalanx  or  any  of  its  brigades  for  a  chai'ge,  or  when  it  was  nec- 
essary to  prepare  to  receive  ca  /airy. 

Besides  the  phalanx,  Alexander  had  a  considerable  force  of 
infantry  who  were  called  Shield-bearers :  they  were  not  so  heav- 
ily armed  as  the  phalangites,  or  as  was  the  case  with  the  Greek 
regular  infantry  in  general,  but  they  were  equipped  for  close  fight 
as  well  as  for  skirmishing,  and  were  far  superior  to  the  ordinary 
irregular  troops  of  Greek  w-arfare.  They  were  about  six  thou- 
sand strong.  Besides  these,  he  had  several  bodies  of  Greek  reg- 
ular infantry  ;  and  he  had  archers,  slingers,  and  javelin-men,  Avho 
fought  also  with  broadsword  and  target,  and  who  were  princi- 
pally supplied  him  by  the  highlanders  of  Illyria  and  Thracia. 
The  main  strength  of  his  cavalry  consisted  in  two  choseri  regi- 
ments of  cuirassiers,  one  Macedonian  and  one  Thessalian,  each 
of  which  was  about  fifteen  hundred  strong.  They  were  ]i>fovid- 
cd  with  long  lances  and  heavy  swords,  and  horse  as  well  tts  mar 
was  fully  equipped  with  defensive  armor.  Other  regiments  of 
regular  cavalry  were  less  heavily  armed,  and  there  were  <5evera< 
bodies  of  light  horsemen,  whom  Alexander's  conquests  i  4  Egypt 
and  Syria  had  enabled  him  to  mount  superbly. 

A  little  before  the  end  of  August,  Alexander  crossed  the  Eu- 
phrates at  Thapsacus,  a  small  corps  of  Persian  cavalry  utider  Ma- 
zasus  letiring  before  him.  Alexander  was  too  prudent  to  march 
down  through  the  Mesopotamian  deserts,  and  continued  to  ad- 
vance eastward  with  the  intention  of  passing  the  Tigris,  and  then, 
li  hf?  was  unable  to  find  Darius  and  bring  him  to  action,  of  march- 
ing southward  on  the  left  side  of  that  river  along  the  skirts  of  a 
mountainous  district  where  his  men  would  sufier  less  from  heal 
and  thirst,  and  where  provisions  would  be  more  abundant. 


fi  AT  r  L  E      O  !•'     A  K  B  t^  L  A.  8l 

Oarius.  liuding  thai  liis  adversary  was  not  to  be  enticed  into 
the  march  tlirough  Mesopotamia  apaiiist  his  capital,  determined 
to  remain  on  the  battle-ground,  which  he  had  chosen  on  the  left 
of  the  Tigris  ;  where,  it"  his  enemy  met  a  defeat  or  a  check,  the 
destruction  of  the  invaders  would  be  certain  with  two  such  rivers 
as  the  Euphrates  ani  the  Tigris  in  their  rear.  The  Persian  king 
availed  himself  to  the  utmost  of  every  advantage  in  his  power. 
He  >'aused  a  large  space  of  ground  to  be  carefully  leveled  for  the 
operation  of  his  scythe-armed  chariots  \  and  he  deposited  his  mil- 
tlary  stores  in  the  strong  town  of  Arbela,  about  twenty  miles  in 
his  rear.  The  rhetoricians  of  after  ages  have  loved  to  describe 
]>arius  Codomanus  as  a  second  Xerxes  in  ostentation  and  imbe- 
cility ;  but  a  i'air  examination  of  his  generalship  in  this  his  last 
campaign,  shows  that  he  was  worthy  of  bearing  the  same  name 
as  his  great  predecessor,  the  royal  son  of  Hystaspes. 

On  learning  that  Darius  was  with  a  large  army  on  the  left  of 
the  Tigris,  Alexander  hurried  forward  and  crossed  that  rivei 
witliout  opposition.  He  was  at  first  unable  to  procure  any  cer- 
tain intelligence  of  the  precise  position  of  the  enemy,  and  after 
giving  his  army  a  short  interval  of  rest,  he  marched  for  four  days 
down  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  A  moralist  may  pause  upor. 
the  fact  that  Alexander  must  in  this  march  have  passed  within 
a  few  miles  of  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  the  great  city  of  the  primae- 
val conquerors  of  the  human  race.  Neither  the  Macedonian 
king  nor  any  of  his  ioUowers  knew  what  those  vast  mounds  had 
once  been.  They  had  already  sunk  into  utter  destruction  ;  and 
it  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  the  intellectual  energy 
of  one  of  our  own  countrymen  has  rescued  Nineveh  from  its  long 
centuries  of  oblivion.* 

On  the  fourth  day  of  Alexander's  southward  march,  his  a<l 
vanced  guard  reported  that  a  body  of  the  enemy's  cavalry  was 
in  sight.  He  instantly  formed  his  army  in  order  for  battle,  and 
diiecliug  them  to  advance  steadily,  ha  rode  forward  at  the  head 
of  some  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  charged  the  Persian  horse, 
wh'Jin  he  found  before  him.  This  was  a  mere  reconi  oiteriug 
party,  and  they  broke  and  fled  immediately  ;  but  the  Macedo- 
nians made  some  prisoners,  and  from  them  Alexander  found  that 
Darius  was  posted  only  a  few  miles  ofl',  and  learned  the  f  treugth 

*  See  Layard's  "  Nineveh,"  and  see  Vaux's  "  Nineveh  and  Persepo 

a«,"  p.  16. 

D2 


63  BATTLEOFARBELA 

of  the  army  that  he  had  with  him.  On  receiving  this  news  At 
exander  halted,  and  gave  his  men  repose  for  four  days,  sd  thai 
they  should  go  into  action  fresh  and  vigorous.  He  also  forlitied 
his  camp  and  deposited  in  it  all  his  military  stores,  and  all  h'lH 
sick  and  disabled  soldiers,  intending  to  advance  upon  the  enemy 
w'llh.  the  s(;rviceable  part  of  his  army  perfectly  unencumbereil. 
.\fter  this  halt,  he  moved  forward,  while  it  was  yet  dark,  >\'iln 
the  intention  of  reaching  the  enemy,  and  attacking  them  at  break 
of  day.  About  half  M^ay  betAveen  the  camps  there  were  some 
undulations  of  the  ground,  which  concealed  the  two  armies  from 
each  other's  view  ;  but,  on  Alexander  arriving  at  their  summit, 
he  saw,  by  the  early  light,  the  Persian  host  arrayed  before  him, 
and  he  probably  also  observed  traces  of  some  engineering  oper- 
ation having  been  carried  on  along  part  of  the  ground  in  front 
of  them.  Not  knowing  that  these  marks  had  been  caused  by 
the  Persians  having  leveled  the  ground  for  the  free  use  of  their 
war-chariots,  Alexander  suspected  that  hidden  pitfalls  had  been 
prepared  with  a  view  of  disordering  the  approach  of  his.  cavalry 
He  summoned  a  council  of  war  forthwith.  Some  of  the  officers 
were  for  attacking  instantly,  at  all  hazards  ;  but  the  more  pru- 
dent opinion  of  Parmenio  prevailed,  and  it  was  determined  not 
to  advance  further  till  the  battle-ground  had  been  carefully  sur- 
veyed. 

Alexander  halted  his  army  on  the  heights,  and,  taking  with 
him  some  light-armed  infantry  and  some  cavalry,  he  passed  part 
of  the  day  in  reconnoitering  the  enemy,  and  observing  the  nature 
of  the  ground  which  he  had  to  fight  on.  Darius  wisely  refrain- 
ed from  moving  from  his  position  to  attack  the  Macedonians  on 
the  eminences  which  they  occupied,  and  the  two  armies  remain- 
ed until  night  without  molesting  each  other.  On  Alexander's 
return  to  his  head-quarters,  he  summoned  his  generals  and  supe 
rior  officers  together,  and  telling  them  that  he  well  knew  thai 
'heir  zeal  wanted  no  exhortation,  he  besought  them  to  do  their 
•ulLiost  in  encouraging  and  instructing  those  whom  each  com- 
;jianded,  to  do  their  best  in  the  next  day's  battle.  They  were 
'.,)  remind  them  that  they  were  now  not  going  to  fight  for  a  prov- 
lice  as  they  had  hitherto  fought,  but  they  were  about  to  decide 
i'y  tlieir  swords  the  dominion  of  all  Asia.  Each  oflice  •  ought  to 
iinpresE:  this  upon  his  subalterns,  and  they  should  urge  it  on  their 
men.     Their  natural  courage  req  xired  no  long  wo«ds  to  excit':  iti 


BATTLEOFARBELA.  tiZ 

ardor ;  but  they  shou.d  be  reminded  of  the  paramount  impon 
aiice  oi"  steadiness  in  action.  The  silence  in  the  ranks  must  be 
unbroken  as  long  as  silence  was  proper  ;  but  when  the  time  came 
for  ihe  charge,  the  shout  and  the  cheer  must  be  full  of  terror  for 
the  foe.  The  officers  were  to  be  alert  in  receiving  and  commu- 
tiicating  orders  ;  and  every  one  was  to  act  as  if  he  felt  that  thi- 
whole  result  of  the  battle  depended  on  his  own  single  good  con 
hict. 

Having  thus  briefly  instructed  his  generals,  Alexander  ordered 
that  the  army  should  sup,  and  take  their  rest  for  the  night. 

Darkness  had  closed  over  the  tents  of  the  Macedonians,  when 
Alexander's  veteran  general,  Panmenio,  came  to  him,  and  pro 
posed  that  they  should  make  a  night  attack  on  the  Persiai;- 
The  king  is  said  to  have  answered  that  he  scorned  to  filch  » 
victory,  and  that  Alexander  must  conquer  openly  and  fairly. 
Arrian  justly  remarks  that  Alexander's  resolution  was  as  wise 
as  it  was  spirited.  Besides  the  confusion  and  uncertainty  which 
are  inseparable  from  night  engagements,  the  value  of  Alexan- 
der's victory  would  have  been  impaired,  if  gained  under  circum- 
stances which  might  supply  the  enemy  with  any  excuse  for  hia 
defeat,  and  encouraged  him  to  renew  the  contest.  It  was  nec- 
essary for  Alexander  not  only  to  beat  Darius,  but  to  gain  such 
a  victory  as  should  leave  his  rival  without  apology  and  without 
hope  of  recovery. 

The  Persians,  in  fact,  expected,  and  were  prepared  to  meet, 
a  night  attack.  Such  was  the  apprehension  that  Darius  enter- 
tained of  it,  that  he  formed  his  troops  at  evening  in  order  of  bat- 
tle, and  kept  them  under  arms  all  night.  The  effect  of  this  was, 
that  the  morning  found  them  jaded  and  dispirited,  while  it  brought 
their  adversai'ies  all  fresh  and  vigorous  against  them. 

The  written  order  of  battle  which  Darius  himself  caused  to 
be  drawn  up,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians  after  the 
engagement,  and  Aristobulus  copied  it  into  his  journal.  We  thus 
possess,  thi'ough  Arrian,  unusually  authentic  information  as  to  tho 
composition  and  arrangement  of  the  Persian  army.  On  the  ex- 
treme left  were  the  Bactrian,  Daan,  and  Arachosian  cavalry. 
Next  to  these  Darius  placed  the  troops  from  Persia  proper,  both 
horse  and  foot.  Then  came  the  Susians,  and  next  to  these  the 
Cadusians.  These  forces  made  up  the  left  wing.  Darius's  owe 
station  was  in  the  centre.     This  was  composed  of  the  Indians 


84  BATTLEOFARUELA. 

the  Caiians,  the  Mardian  archers,  and  the  division  of  Persiaai 
who  were  diiLtiuguished  by  the  golden  apples  that  formed  the 
knobs  of  their  spears.  Here  also  were  stationed  the  body-guard 
of  the  Persian  nobility.  Besides  these,  there  were,  in  the  cen- 
tre, formed  in  deep  order,  the  Uxian  and  Babylonian  troops,  and 
the  soldiers  from  the  Red  Sea.  The  brigade  of  Greek  mercena- 
ne.s  Avhom  Darius  had  in  his  service,  and  who  alone  were  con- 
sidi.red  fit  to  stand  the  charge  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  was 
drawn  up  on  either  side  of  the  royal  chariot.  The  right  wing 
was  composed  of  the  Coelosyrians  and  Mesopotamians,  the  Medes, 
the  Parthians,  the  Sacians,  the  Tapurians,  Hyrcanians,  Albani- 
an-, and  Sacesinse.  In  advance  of  the  line  on  the  left  wing  were 
placed  the  Scythian  cavalry,  with  a  thousand  of  the  Bactrian 
horse,  and  a  hundred  scythe-armed  chariots.  The  elephants  and 
fifty  scythe-armed  chariots  were  ranged  in  front  of  the  centre  ; 
and  fifty  more  chariots,  with  the  Armenian  and  Cappadocian 
cavalry,  were  drawn  up  in  advance  of  the  right  wing. 

Thus  arrayed,  the  great  host  of  King  Darius  passed  the  night, 
that  to  many  thousands  of  them  was  the  last  of  their  existence. 
The  morning  of  the  first  of  October,*  two  thousand  one  hundred 
and  eighty-tAvo  years  ago,  dawned  slowly  to  their  wearied  watch- 
ing, and  they  could  hear  the  note  of  the  Macedonian  trumpet 
Bounding  to  arms,  and  could  see  King  Alexander's  forces  descend 
from  their  tents  on  the  heights,  and  form  in  order  of  battle  on 
the  plain. 

There  was  deep  need  of  skill,  as  well  as  of  valor,  on  Alexan 
der's  side  ;  and  few  battle-fields  have  witnessed  more  consum 
mate  generalship  than  was  now  displayed  by  the  MacedonidK 
king.  There  were  no  natural  barriers  by  which  he  could  pro 
tect  his  flanks  ;  and  not  only  was  he  certain  to  be  overlapped 
on  either  wing  by  the  va.st  lines  of  the  Persian  army,  but  there 
was  imminent  risk  of  their  circling  round  him,  and  charging  him 
in  the  rear,  while  he  advanced  against  their  centre.  He  formed, 
therefore,  a  second  or  reserve  line,  which  was  to  wheel  round,  if 
required,  or  to  detach  troops  to  either  flank,  as  the  enemy's  move- 
M=?nts  might  necessitate  ;  and  thus,  with  their  whole  army  ready 
at  any  moment  to  be  thrown  into  one  vast  hollow  p^uare,  the 

*  See  Clinton's  "  Fasti  Hellenici."  The  battle  was  roii^ht  eleven  days 
aftex  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  vhich  gives  the  means  of  fixing  (lie  precise 
date. 


BATTLE     OlARBEL  A.  tit 

Macedonians  advanced  in  two  lines  against  the  enerny,  Alexan* 
tier  himself  leading  on  the  right  wing,  and  tlie  renownad  pha- 
lanx forming  the  centre,  while  Parmenio  commanded  on  the  left. 

Such  was  the  general  nature  of  the  disposition  which  Alex 
ant'or  made  of  his  army.  But  we  have  in  Arrian  the  details  of 
th3  position  of  each  brigade  and  regiment ;  and  as  we  know  that 
tJi23o  details  were  taken  from  the  journals  of  Macedonian  genei' 
sis,  it  is  interesting  to  examine  them,  and  to  read  the  names  and 
etations  of  King  Alexander's  generals  and  colonels  in  this,  the 
greatest  of  hio  battles. 

The  eight  regiments  of  the  royal  horse-guards  formed  the  right 
of  Alexander's  line.  Their  colonels  were  Cleitus  (whose  regi- 
ment was  on  the  extreme  right,  the  post  of  peculiar  danger), 
(rlaucias,  Arisiton,  Sopolis,  Heracleides,  Demetrias,  Meleager, 
and  Hegelochus.  Philotas  was  general  of  the  whole  division. 
Then  came  the  Shield-bearing  infantry  :  Nicanor  was  their  gen- 
eral. Then  came  the  phalanx  in  six  brigades.  Cosnuss  brig- 
ade was  on  the  right,  and  nearest  to  the  Shield-bearers  ;  next 
to  this  stood  the  brigade  of  Perdiccas,  then  Meleager's,  then  Pol- 
ysperchon's  ;  and  then  the  brigade  of  Amynias,  but  which  was 
now  commanded  by  Simmias,  as  Amynias  had  been  sent  to  Mac- 
edonia to  levy  recruits.  Then  cams  the  infantry  of  the  left  wing, 
under  the  command  of  Crateras.  Iv.jxt  to  Craterus's  infantry 
were  placed  the  cavalry  regiments  of  the  allies,  with  Eriguius 
for  their  general.  The  Thessahan  cavalry,  commanded  by  Phi- 
lippus,  were  next,  and  held  the  extreme  left  of  the  whole  army 
The  whole  left  wing  was  intrusted  to  the  command  of  Parmenio, 
who  had  round  his  person  the  Pharsalian  regiment  of  cavalry, 
M'hich  was  the  strongest  and  best  of  all  the  Thessalian  horse 
regiments. 

The  centre  of  the  second  line  was  occupied  by  a  body  of  pha- 
langite  infantry,  formed  of  companies  which  were  drafted  for  this 
purpose  from  each  of  the  brigades  of  their  phalanx.  The  offi- 
pers  in  command  of  this  corps  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  face 
about,  if  the  enemv  she  aid  succeed  in  gaining  the  rear  of  the  army. 
On  the  ngnt  of  this  reserve  of  infantry,  in  the  second  lino,  and 
behind  the  royal  horse-guards,  Alexander  placed  half  the  Agriaa 
light-armed  iiilantry  inider  Attains,  and  with  them  Brison's  body 
^f  Macedonian  archers  and  Oleander's  regiment  of  foot.  He  also 
olaced  in  this  part  cf  his  army  Menidas's  squadron  of  cavalry, 


5C  K  A  T  T  J    E     O  F     A    I  H  K  L  A 

and  Aretes's  aud  Ariston's  light  lioise.  Meaidas  was  ordered  u 
watch  if  the  enemy's  cavahy  tried  to  turn  their  flank,  and,  il 
they  did  so,  to  charge  thern  before  they  wheeled  completely  round, 
and  so  take  them  in  flank  themselves.  A  similar  force  was  ar- 
ranged on  the  left  of  the  second  line  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
Thrajian  infantry  of  Sitalces  were  placed  there,  and  Coeranus's 
regiment  of  the  cavalry  of  the  Greek  allies,  and  Agathon's  troops 
)f  tlie  ()dr}'sian  irregular  horse.  The  extreme  left  of  the  second 
Uuo  in  this  quarter  was  held  by  Andromachus's  cavalry.  A  di- 
vision of  Thracian  infantry  was  left  in  guard  of  the  camp.  In 
advance  of  the  right  wing  and  centre  was  scattered  a  number 
of  light-armed  troops,  of  javelin-men  and  bow-men,  with  the  in- 
tention of  warding  ofi'the  charge  of  the  armed  chariots.* 

Conspicuous  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  armor,  and  by  the  chosen 
band  of  officers  who  were  round  his  per.son,  Alexander  took  his 
own  station,  as  his  custom  was,  in  the  rjght  wing,  at  the  head 
of  his  cavalry  ;  and  when  all  the  arrangements  for  the  battle 
were  complete,  and  his  generals  were  fully  instructed  how  to  act 
in  each  probable  emergency,  he  began  to  lead  his  men  toward 
the  enemy. 

It  was  ever  his  custom  to  expose  his  life  freely  in  battle,  and 
to  emulate  the  personal  prowess  of  his  great  ancestor,  Achilles. 
Perhaps,  in  the  bold  enterprise  of  conquering  Persia,  it  was  pol- 
itic for  Alexander  to  raise  his  army's  daring  to  the  utmost  by  the 
example  of  his  own  heroic  valor  ;  aud,  in  his  subsequent  cam- 
paigns, the  love  of  the  excitement,  of"  the  raptures  of  the  strife," 
may  have  made  him,  like  Murat,  continue  from  choice  a  custom 
which  he  commenced  from  duty.  But  he  never  suffered  the  ar- 
dor of  the  soldier  to  make  him  lose  the  coolness  of  the  general, 
and  at  Arbela,  in  particular,  he  showed  that  he  could  act  up  to 
his  favorite  Homeric  maxim  of  being 

'A^^orfpov,  (iaaiTiEv^  r'  ayaBbr  Kparepog  r'  alxiiijTfjg. 

Great  reliance  had  been  placed  by  the  Persian  king  on  the 
tiTects  of  the  scythe-bearing  chariots.  It  was  designed  to  launch 
these  against  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  and  to  ibUow  them  up 
Ly  a  heavy  charge  of  cavalry,  which,  it  was  hoped,  would  find 

•  Klf'her's  arrangement  of  li:s  troops  at  ihe  battle  ofHeliopolis,  where, 
witli  ti-n  llKtusand  Europeans,  lie  had  to  encounter  eighty  thousand  Asi 
alica  in  an  open  plain,  is  wortli  comparing  with  Alexander's  tactics  at  Ar 
bela.     See  Thiers's  "  Histoire  du  Consulat,"  &c  .  vol.  ji.,  livre  v. 


BAilLE     OF     ARBELrt  HI 

the  ranks  of  the  spearmen  disordered  by  the  rush  ol  liie  cliai....!. 
and  easily  destroy  this  most  formidable  part  of  Alexander's  force. 
In  front,  therefore,  of  the  Persian  centre,  where  Darius  took  his 
fetation,  and  which  it  was  supposed  that  the  phalanx  would  at 
tack,  the  ground  had  been  carefully  leveled  and  smoothed,  so  as 
{i  allow  the  chariots  to  charge  over  it  with  their  *'ull  sweep  and 
ijjieed.  As  the  Macedonian  army  approached  the  Persian,  Alex- 
iuder  found  that  the  front  of  his  whole  line  barely  equaled  the 
IVniit  of  the  Persian  centre,  so  that  he  was  outflanked  on  liia 
right  by  the  entire  left  wing  of  the  enemy,  and  by  their  entire 
right  wing  on  his  left.  His  tactics  were  to  ai^sail  some  one  point 
of  the  hostile  army,  and  gain  a  decisive  advantage,  while  he  re- 
fused, as  far  as  possible,  the  encounter  along  the  rest  of  the  line. 
He  therefore  inclined  his  order  of  march  to  the  right,  so  as  to  en- 
able his  right  wing  and  centre  to  come  into  collision  with  the 
enemy  on  as  favorable  terms  as  possible,  although  the  maneuvei 
might  in  some  respect  compromise  his  left. 

The  eflect  of  this  oblique  movement  was  to  bring  the  phalanx 
and  his  own  wing  nearly  beyond  the  limits  of  the  ground  which 
the  Persians  had  prepared  for  the  operations  of  the  chariots  ;  and 
Darius,  fearing  to  lose  the  benefit  of  this  arm  against  the  most 
important  parts  of  the  Macedonian  force,  ordered  the  Scythian 
and  Bactrian  cavalry,  who  were  drawn  up  in  advance  on  his  ex- 
treme left,  to  charge  round  upon  Alexander's  right  wing,  and 
check  its  further  lateral  progress.  Against  these  assailants  Al- 
exander sent  from  his  second  line  Menidas's  cavalry.  As  these 
proved  too  few  to  make  head  against  the  enemy,  he  ordered 
Ariston  also  from  the  second  line  with  his  light  horse,  and  Olean- 
der with  his  foot,  in  support  of  Menidas.  The  Bactrians  and 
Scythians  now  began  to  give  way  ;  but  Darius  re-enforced  thorn 
by  the  mass  of  Bactrian  cavalry  from  his  main  line,  and  an  ob- 
stinate cavalry  fight  now  took  place.  The  Bactrians  and  Scythi- 
ans were  numerous,  and  were  better  armed  than  the  hor.-tmen 
under  Menidas  and  Ariston  ;  and  the  loss  at  first  was  heaviest 
•Ml  the  Macedonian  side.  But  still  the  European  cavalry  stnod 
the  charge  of  the  Asiatics,  and  at  laiL.by  their  superior  'Jisei- 
p!ine,  and  by  acting  in  squadrons  that  supported  each  other,*  in- 

*  'A/'-Aa  Kal  (Df  tu^  —poaBo'/.uc  avTtJv  t(5«;\oi'ro  ol  MaKCf^uvsr,  Kal  iii<2  Kar 
i}.ac  7rpoairinTovTe(  ei<l)6ovv  ek  r^f  ruffwf. — Arrian,  lib.  iii.,  c.  13. 
The  best  explanation  of  this  may  be  found  in  Napoleon's  aecoiiBt  of  th« 


88  BATTLEOfAKBEl^A. 

Btead  of  figlitiug  in  a  confused  mass  like  the  liarbarians.  tilt 
Macedonians  Lroke  their  adversaries,  and  drove  them  oiithe  rield. 

Darius  now  directed  the  scythe-armed  chariots  to  be  driven 
against  Alexander's  horse-guards  and  the  phalanx,  and  these 
formidable  vehicles  were  accordingly  sent  rattling  across  the 
plain,  against  the  Macedonian  line.  When  we  remember  the 
alarm  which  the  war-chariots  of  the  Britons  created  among 
Caesar's  legions,  we  shall  not  be  prone  to  deride  this  arm  of  an 
cient  warfare  as  always  useless.  The  object  of  the  chariots  was 
to  create  unsteadiness  in  the  ranks  against  which  they  were 
driven,  and  squadrons  of  cavalry  followed  close  upon  them  to 
profit  by  such  disorder.  But  the  Asiatic  chariots  were  rendered 
ineffective  at  Arbela  by  the  light-armed  troops,  whom  Alexander 
had  specially  appointed  for  the  service,  and  who,  wounding  the 
horses  and  drivers  with  their  missile  weapons,  and  ninning  along- 
side so  as  to  cut  the  traces  or  seize  the  reins,  marred  the  intend- 
ed charge  ;  and  the  few  chariots  that  reached  the  phalanx  pass- 
ed harmlessly  through  the  intervals  which  the  spearmen  opened 
for  them,  and  were  easily  captured  in  the  rear. 

A  mass  of  the  Asiatic  cavalry  was  now,  for  the  second  time, 
collected  against  Alexander's  extreme  right,  and  moved  round 
it,  with  the  view  of  gaining  the  flank  of  his  army.  At  the  crit- 
ical moment,  when  their  own  flanks  were  exposed  by  this  evolu- 
tion. Aretes  dashed  on  the  Persian  squadrons  with  his  horsemen 
from  Alexander's  second  line.  While  Alexander  thus  met  and 
baflled  all  the  flanking  attacks  of  the  enemy  with  troops  brought 
up  from  his  second  line,  he  kept  his  own  horse-guards  and  the 

cavalry  fights  between  the  French  and  tlie  Mamelukes.  "  Two  Mame- 
lukes were  able  to  make  head  against  three  Frenchmen,  because  thej 
were  better  armed,  better  mounted,  and  better  trained  ;  they  had  two  pair 
of  pistols,  a  blunderbuss,  a  carabine,  a  helmet  with  a  visor,  and  a  coat  ol 
mail  ;  they  had  several  horses,  and  several  attendants  on  foot.  One  hun 
dred  cuirassiers,  however,  were  not  afraid  of  one  hundred  Mamelukes; 
t^iree  hundred  could  beat  an  equal  number,  and  one  thousand  could  easily 
put  to  the  rout  fifteen  hundred,  so  great  is  the  influence  of  tactics,  order, 
and  evolutions !  Leclerc  and  Lasalle  presented  their  men  to  the  Mame- 
{ukps  m  several  lines.  When  the  Arabs  were  on  the  point  of  overwhelm- 
Liig  tl.e  first,  the  second  came  to  its  assistance  on  the  right  and  left ;  the 
Mamelukes  then  hailed  and  wheeled,  in  order  to  turn  the  wings  of  this 
new  line  ;  I'lis  moinenl  was  always  seized  upon  to  charge  them,  and  they 
were  unifo  mly  broken." — Monthclon's  "  History  of  Captivity  of  Napo 
"eon,"  vol   iv.,  p  70. 


B  A  T  T  L  K      O  F     A  K  H  10  I,  A.  ??! 

rest  of  the  front  line  of  his  wing  fresh,  and  rea  Jy  to  tak",  ad  van 
tafi^e  of  the  fust  o^^ijortunity  for  striking  a  decisive  blow  Thi? 
soon  came.  A  large  body  of  horse,  who  were  posted  on  the  Per- 
sian left  wing  nearest  to  the  centre,  quitted  their  station,  and  rode 
ofl  to  helji  their  comrades  in  the  cavalry  fight,  that  still  was 
i^oing  on  at  the  extreme  right  of  Alexander's  wing  against  the 
detachments  from  his  second  line.  This  made  a  huge  gap  in  the 
Persian  array,  and  into  this  space  Alexander  instantly  charged 
A'ilh  his  guard  and  all  the  cavalry  of  his  M'ing  ;  and  then  press 
ng  toward  his  left,  he  soon  began  to  make  havoc  in  the  left  flank 
of  the  Persian  centre.  The  Shield-bearing  infantry  now  charged 
also  among  the  reeling  masses  of  the  Asiatics ;  and  five  of  the 
brigades  of  the  phalanx,  with  the  irresistible  might  of  their  saris- 
sas,  bore  down  the  Greek  mercenaries  of  Darius,  and  dug  theik 
way  through  the  Persian  centre.  In  the  early  part  of  the  battie 
Darius  had  showed  skill  and  energy  ;  and  he  now,  for  some  time, 
encouraged  his  men,  by  voice  and  example,  to  keep  firm.  But 
the  lances  of  Alexander's  cavalry  and  the  pikes  of  the  phalanx 
now  pressed  nearer  and  nearer  to  him.  His  charioteer  was 
struck  down  by  a  javelin  at  his  side  ;  and  at  last  Darius's  nerve 
failed  him,  and,  descending  from  his  chariot,  he  mounted  on  a 
fleet  horse  and  galloped  from  the  plain,  regardless  of  the  state 
of  the  battle  in  other  parts  of  the  field,  whei'e  matters  were  going 
on  much  more  favorably  for  his  cause,  and  where  his  presence 
might  have  done  much  toward  gaining  a  victory. 

Alexander's  operations  with  his  right  and  centre  had  exposed 
his  left  to  an  immensely  preponderating  force  of  the  enemy. 
Parmenio  kept  out  of  action  as  long  as  possible  ;  but  Mazaeus, 
who  commanded  the  Persian  right  wing,  advanced  against  him, 
completely  outflanked  him,  and  pressed  him  severely  with  reit- 
erated charges  by  superior  numbers.  Seeing  the  distress  of  Par- 
nienio's  wing,  Simmias,  who  commanded  the  sixth  brigade  of  the 
phalanx,  which  was  next  to  the  left  wing,  did  not  advance  with 
the  lather  brigades  in  the  great  charge  upon  the  Persian  centie, 
t  ut  Kept  back  to  cover  Parmenio's  troops  on  their  right  flank,  aa 
otherwise  they  would  have  been  completely  surrounded  and  cut 
ofl'  from  the  rest  of  the  Macedonian  army.  By  so  doing,  Sim- 
mias had  unavoidably  opened  a  gap  in  the  Macedonian  left 
centre  ;  and  a  large  column  of  Indian  and  Persian  horse,  from 
the  Persian  right  centre,  had  galloped  foiward  through  this  in- 


90  B  A  Tl  I.  t;     OF     ARBE  L  a. 

terval,  and  right  through  th(}  troops  of  the  Macedonian  seronr'. 
hne.  Instead  of  then  wheeling  round  upon  Parmenio,  or  upon 
the  rear  of  Alexander's  conquering  wing,  the  Indian  and  Persian 
cavalry  rode  straight  on  to  the  Macedonian  camp,  overpowered 
the  Thracians  who  were  left  in  charge  of  it,  and  began  to  plun 
tier.  This  was  stopped  by  the  phalangite  troops  of  the  second 
line,  who,  after  the  enemy's  horsemen  had  rushed  by  them,  faced 
about,  countermarched  upon  the  camp,  killed  many  of  the  Indians 
and  Persians  in  the  act  of  plundering,  and  forced  the  rest  to  ride 
off  again.  Just  at  this  crisis,  Alexander  had  been  recalled  from 
his  pursuit  of  Darius  by  tidings  of  the  distress  of  Parmenio.  and 
of  his  inability  to  bear  up  any  longer  against  the  hot  attacks  of 
Mazseus.  Taking  his  horse-guards  with  him,  Alexander  rode  to- 
ward the  part  of  the  field  where  his  left  wing  was  fighting  ;  but 
on  his  way  thither  he  encountered  the  Persian  and  Indian  cav- 
alry, on  their  return  from  his  camp. 

These  men  now  saw  that  their  only  chance  of  safety  was  to 
cut  their  way  through,  and  in  one  huge  column  they  charged 
desperately  upon  the  Macedonian  regiments.  There  was  here  a 
close  hand-to-hand  fight,  which  lasted  some  time,  and  sixty  of 
the  royal  horse-guards  fell,  and  three  generals,  who  fought  close 
to  Alexander's  side,  were  wounded.  At  length  the  Macedonian 
discipline  and  valor  again  prevailed,  and  a  large  number  of  the 
Persian  and  Indian  horsemen  were  cut  down,  some  few  only  suc- 
ceeding in  breaking  through  and  riding  away.  Relieved  of  these 
obstinate  enffmies,  Alexander  again  formed  his  regiments  of 
horse-guards,  and  led  them  toward  Parmenio  ;  but  by  this  time 
that  general  also  was  victorious.  Probably  the  news  of  Darius'a 
flight  had  reached  Mazaeus,  and  had  damped  the  ardor  of  the 
Persian  right  wing,  while  the  tidings  of  their  comrades'  success 
nust  have  proportionally  encouraged  the  Macedonian  forces  un- 
der Parmenio.  His  Thessalian  cavalry  particularly  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  gallantry  and  persevering  good  Konduct ;  and 
by  the  time  that  Alexander  had  ridden  up  to  Parmenio,  the  whole 
IVrsian  army  was  in  full  flight  from  the  field. 

It  was  of  the  deepest  importance  to  Alexander  to  secure  the 
person  of  Darius,  and  he  now  urged  on  the  pursuit.  The  River 
Lycus  was  between  the  field  of  battle  and  the  city  of  Arbcla, 
whither  the  fugitives  directed  their  course,  and  the  passage  of 
Uiis  river  was  even  more  destructive  to  the  Persians  than  *ih« 


BATTLE     OF     ARBELA.  91 

iwords  iuid  spears  of  the  Macedonians  had  been  in  the  engage- 
ment.* The  narro\»'  bridge  was  soon  choked  up  b}'  the  flying 
thousands  who  rushL-d  toward  it,  and  vast  numbers  of"  the  I'er- 
sians  threw  themselves,  or  were  hurried  by  others,  into  the  rapid 
stream,  and  perished  in  its  waters.  Darius  had  crossed  it,  and  had 
ridden  on  through  Arbela  without  halting.  Alexander  reached 
Uial  city  on  the  next  day,  and  nriade  himself  master  of  all  Dari- 
us s  treasure  and  stores ;  but  the  Persian  king,  unfortunately  for 
MTASclf,  had  fled  too  fast  for  his  conqueror,  but  had  only  escaped 
to  perish  by  the  treachery  of  his  Bactrian  satrap,  Bessus. 

A  few  days  after  the  battle  Alexander  entered  Babylon,  "  the 
oldest  seat  of  earthly  empire"  then  in  existence,  as  its  acknowl- 
edged lord  and  master.  There  were  yet  some  campaigns  of  his 
brief  and  bright  career  to  be  accomplished.  Central  Asia  was 
yet  to  witness  the  march  of  his  phalanx.  He  was  yet  to  effect 
that  conquest  of  Afghanistan  in  which  England  since  has  failed. 
His  generalship,  as  well  as  his  valor,  were  yet  to  be  signalized 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hydaspes  and  the  field  of  Chillianwallah  ; 
and  he  was  yet  to  precede  the  Q,ueen  of  England  in  annexing 
the  Punjaub  to  the  dominions  of  a  European  sovereign.  But  the 
trisis  of  his  career  was  reached  ;  the  great  object  of  his  mission 
was  accomplished  ;  and  the  ancient  Persian  empire,  which  once 
menaced  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  with  subjection,  was  irre- 
parably crushed  when  Alexander  had  won  his  crowning  victory 
at  Arbela. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Arbela  anv 
THE  Battle  of  the  Metaurus. 

B.C.  330.  The  Laeedfcrnonians  endeavor  to  create  a  rising  in 
(.1  recce  against  the  Macedonian  power  ;  they  are  defeated  by 
Antipater,  Alexander's  viceroy  ;  and  their  king,  Agis,  falls  iji 
the  battle. 

33Q  to  327.  Alexander's  campaigns  in  Upper  Asia. 

327,  326.  Alexander  marches  through  Afghanistan  to  the 
Funjaub.     He  defeats  Porus.     His  troops  refuse   to  manili  to- 

*  I  purposely  omit  any  statement  of  the  loss  in  the  hatlle.  riiere  is  a 
palpable  error  of  the  transcribers  in  the  numbers  which  we  5nd  in  oui 
present  manuscr  pts  of  Arrian,  and  Curtius  is  of  no  authority 


^2  s\  >  c  F  si.s    or    f.  VE  M  TS 

ward  the  Ganges,  and  he  commenoBS  the  descent  ot  the  Indus 
On  his  march  he  attacks  and  subdues  severa"  Judian  tnbes — 
among  others,  the  Malli,  in  the  storming  of  whose  capital  (Mod 
tail)  he  is  severely  wounded.  He  directs  his  admiral,  Neaichus, 
io  sail  round  from  the  Indus  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  leads  the 
army  back  across  Scinde  and  Beloochistan. 

324.  Alexander  returns  to  Babylon.  "  In  the  tenth  year  aftei 
je;  hac  crossed  the  Hellespont,  Alexander,  having  won  his  vast 
dfcniinion,  entered  Babylon  ;  and  resting  from  his  career  in  that 
i)lu3St  seat  of  earthly  empire,  he  steadily  survej^ed  the  mass  of 
various  nations  which  owned  his  sovereignty,  and  resolved  in  hi? 
mind  the  great  work  of  breathing  into  this  huge  but  inert  body 
the  living  spirit  of  Greek  civilization.  In  the  bloom  of  y^outhfu! 
manhood,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  paused  from  the  fiery  speed 
of  his  earlier  course,  and  for  the  first  time  gave  the  nations  an 
opportunity  of  offering  their  homage  before  his  throne.  They 
came  from  all  the  extremities  of  the  earth  to  propitiate  his  an- 
ger, to  celebrate  his  greatness,  or  to  solicit  his  protection.  *  *  * 
History  may  allow  us  to  think  that  Alexander  and  a  Roman  em- 
bassador did  meet  at  Babylon  ;  that  the  greatest  man  of  the  an- 
cient world  saw  and  spoke  with  a  citizen  of  that  great  nation 
which  was  destined  to  succeed  him  in  his  appointed  work,  and 
to  found  a  wider  and  still  more  enduring  empire.  They  met,  too, 
in  Babylon,  almost  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  Temple  of  Bel, 
perhaps  the  earliest  monument  ever  raised  by  human  pride  and 
power  in  a  city,  stricken,  as  it  were,  by  the  word  of  God's  heav 
iest  judgment,  as  the  symbol  of  greatness  apart  from  and  opposed 
to  goodness." — (Arnold.) 

323.  Alexander  dies  at  Babylon.  On  his  death  being  known 
at  Greece,  the  Athenians,  and  others  of  the  southern  states,  take 
up  arms  to  shake  off  the  domination  of  Macedon.  They  are  at 
first  successful ;  but  the  return  of  some  of  Alexander's  veterans 
from  Asia  enables  Antipater  to  prevail  over  them. 

317  to  289.  Agathocles  is  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  and  carries  on 
repeated  wars  with  tha  Carthaginians,  in  the  course  of  which 
(311)  he  invades  Africa,  and  reduces  the  Carthaginians  to  great 
distress. 

306.  After  a  long  series  of  wars  with  each  other,  and  after  all 
the  heirs  of  Alexander  had  been  rjurdered,  his  principal  surviv- 
ing generals  assume  the  title  of  king,  each  ovei  the  provincei 


AFTERAUBELA.  93 

which  he  has  occupied.  The  four  chief  among  them  were  An- 
tigonus,  Ptolemy,  Lysimachus,  and  Seleucus.  Antipater  was 
now  dead,  but  his  son  Cassander  succeeded  to  his  power  in  Mac 
edonia  and  Greece 

301.  Seleucus  and  Lysimachus  defeat  Antigonus  at  Ipsus. 
Anligonus  is  killed  in  the  battle. 

280.  Seleucus,  the  last  of  Alexander's  captains,  is  assassinated. 
Of  all  of  Alexander's  successors,  Seleucus  had  formed  the  most 
powerful  empire.  He  had  acquired  all  the  provinces  between 
Phrygia  and  the  Indus.  He  extended  his  dominion  in  India 
beyond  the  limits  reached  by  Alexander.  Seleucus  had  some 
sparks  of  his  great  master's  genius  in  pi'omoting  civihzation  and 
commerce,  as  well  as  in  gaining  victories.  Under  his  success- 
ors, the  Seleucida3,  this  vast  empire  rapidly  diminished :  Bactria 
became  independent,  and  a  separate  dynasty  of  Greek  kings  ruled 
tliere  in  the  year  125,  when  it  was  overthrown  by  the  Scythian 
tribe.  Parthia  threw  oif  its  allegiance  to  the  Seleucidee  in  250 
B.C.,  and  the  powerful  Parthian  kingdom,  which  afterward 
proved  so  formidable  a  fo3  to  Rome,  absorbed  nearly  all  the 
provinces  west  of  the  Euphrates  that  had  obeyed  the  first  Se- 
leucus. Before  the  battle  or"  Ipsus,  Mithradates,  a  Persian  prince 
of  the  blood-royal  of  the  Achsemenidae,  had  escaped  to  Pontus 
and  founded  there  the  kingdom  of  that  name. 

Besides  the  kingdom  of  Seleucus,  which,  when  limited  to  Syria, 
Palestine,  and  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  long  survived,  the  most  im- 
portant kingdom  formed  by  a  gener«ii  of  Alexander  was  that  of 
the  Ptolemies  in  Egypt.  The  throne  of  Macedonia  was  long  and 
obstinately  contended  for  by  Cassander,  Polysperchon,  Lysima- 
chus, Pyrrhus,  Antigonus,  and  others,  but  at  last  was  secured 
by  the  dynasty  of  Antigonus  Gonatas.  The  old  republics  of 
Southern  Greece  suffered  severely  during  these  tumults,  and  the 
only  Greek  states  that  showed  any  sti-ength  and  spirit  were  the 
citi.3s  of  the  Achaean  league,  the  iEtolians,  and  the  islandeia  c£ 
Rhodes. 

<i90.  Rome  had  now  thoroughly  subdued  the  Samnites  and 
;he  Etruscans,  and  had  gained  numerous  victories  over  the  Cis 
alpine  Gauls.  Wishing  to  confirm  her  dominion  in  Lower  lialy, 
she  became  entangled  in  a  war  with  Pyrrhus,  fourth  king  of  Epi- 
rus,  who  was  called  over  by  the  Tarentines  to  aid  them.  Pyr- 
rhas  was  at  first  victorious,  but  in  the  year  275  was  defeated  by 


91  S  Y    ;  O  P  S  1  S     O  F     E  V  E  N  T  S 

the  Roman  legions  in  a  pitched  battle.  He  retu, ued  to  Greece 
remarking  of  Sicily,  Otav  a-oXeinouev  Kapxr]^oVLOLq  Kai  'Pcj 
uucoig  TraXaiaTpav.  Rome  becomes  mistress  of  all  Italy  from 
the  Rubicon  to  the  Straits  of  Messina. 

264.  The  first  Punic  war  begins.  Its  primary  cause  was  th  • 
desire  of  both  the  Romans  and  the  Carthaginians  to  possess 
themselves  of  Sicily.  The  Romans  form  a  fleet,  and  successful 
ly  compete  with  the  marine  of  Carthage.*  During  the  latter 
half  of  the  war  the  military  genius  of  Hamilcar  Barca  sustains 
the  Carthaginian  cause  in  Sicily.  At  the  end  of  twenty-four 
years  the  Carthaginians  sue  for  peace,  though  their  aggregate 
loss  in  ships  and  men  had  been  less  than  that  sustained  by  the 
Romans  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Sicily  becomes  a  Ro- 
man province. 

240  to  218.  The  Carthaginian  mercenaries  who  had  been 
brought  back  from  Sicily  to  Africa  mutiny  against  Carthage, 
and  nearly  succeed  in  destroying  her.  After  a  sanguinaiy  and 
desperate  struggle,  Hamilcar  Barca  crushes  them.  During  this 
season  of  weakness  to  Carthage,  Rome  takes  from  her  the  island 
of  Sardinia.  Hamilcar  Barca  forms  the  project  of  obtaining 
compensation  by  conquests  in  Spain,  and  thus  enabling  Carthage 
to  renew  the  struggle  with  Rome.  He  takes  Hannibal  (then  a 
child)  to  Spain  with  him.  He,  and,  after  his  death,  his  brother 
win  great  part  of  Southern  Spain  to  the  Carthaginian  interest. 
Hannibal  obtains  the  command  of  the  Carthaginian  armies  in 
Spain  221  B.C.,  being  then  twenty-six  years  old.  He  attacks 
Saguntum,  a  city  on  the  Ebro,  in  alliance  with  Rome,  which  is 
the  immediate  pretext  for  the  second  Punic  war. 

During  this  interval  Rome  had  to  sustain  a  storm  from  the 
North.  The  Cisalpine  Gauls,  in  226,  formed  an  alliance  with 
one  of  the  fierces"t  tribes  of  their  brethren  north  of  the  Alps,  and 
began  a  furious  war  against  the  Romans,  which  lasted  six  years 
The  Romans  gave  them  several  severe  defeats,  and  took  Iron, 

*  Ther",  is  at  this  present  moment  in  the  Great  Exiiibition  at  Hyde 
Park  a  moiei  of  a  piratical  galley  of  Labuan,  part  of  the  mast  of  which 
can  he  let  down  on  the  enemy,  and  form  a  bridge  for  boarders.  It  i» 
worth  while  to  compare  this  with  the  account  of  Polybiiis  of  the  boarding 
bridges  wliich  the  Roman  admiral,  Duilliiis,  affixed  to  the  masts  of  his 
galleys,  and  hy  means  of  which  he  won  his  great  victory  over  the  Cartfit» 
vinian  fleet 


AFTER     ARE  EL  A.  l)i 

rtiein  part  of  their  territories  near  the  Po.  It  was  on  this  occa- 
sion that  the  Roman  colonies  of  Cremona  and  Placentia  were 
founded,  the  latter  of  which  did  such  essential  service  to  Rome 
in  the  second  Punic  war  by  the  resistance  which  it  made  to  the 
army  of  Hasdrubal.  A  muster-roll  was  made  in  this  war  of  the 
eflective  military  force  of  the  Romans  themselves,  and  of  those 
Italian  states  that  were  subject  to  them.  The  return  showed  a 
force  of  seven  hundred  thousand  foot  and  seventy  thousand  horse. 
Polybius,  who  mentions  this  muster,  remarks,  'E0'  ovg  'Avvi^iu 
iXuTTovi;  e^c^v  Sia^vpicov,  enebaXev  eig  ttjv  'IraAmv. 
2lfe.   Hannibal  crosses  the  Alps  and  invades  Italy. 


<>€  Battle   of    the   metaurob- 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    METAURUS,   B.C.  207. 

Quid  debeas,  0  Roma,  Neronibus, 
Testis  Metauriim  flumen,  et  Hasdrubal 
Devictus,  et  puleher  fugatis 
Ille  dies  Latio  tenebris,  &.C. 

HoKATins,  iv.  Od.r  4 

The  consul  Nero,  who  made  the  unequaled  march  which  deceived  Han 
nibal  and  defeated  Has  Iriibal,  thereby  accomplishing  an  achievement  al- 
most unrivaled  in  military  annals.  The  first  intelligence  of  his  return,  to 
Hannibal,  was  the  sight  uf  Hasdrubal's  head  thrown  into  his  camp.  When 
Hannibal  saw  this,  he  exclaimed,  with  a  sigh,  that  "  Rome  would  now  be 
the  mistress  of  the  world."  To  this  victory  of  Nero's  it  might  be  owing 
that  his  imperial  namesake  reigned  at  all.  But  the  infamy  of  the  one  has 
eclipsed  the  glory  of  tne  other.  When  the  name  of  Nero  is  heard,  who 
thinks  of  the  consuH     But  such  are  human  things  —Byron. 

About  midway  between  Rimini  and  Ancona  a  little  rivei 
falls  into  the  Adriatic,  after  traversing  one  of  those  districts  of 
Italy  in  which  a  vain  attempt  has  lately  been  made  to  revive, 
after  long  centuries  of  servitude  and  shame,  the  spirit  of  Italian 
nationality  and  the  energy  of  free  institutions.  That  stream  is 
still  called  the  Metauro,  and  wakens  by  its  name  the  recollec- 
tions of  the  resolute  daring  of  ancient  Rome,  and  of  the  slaugh- 
ter that  stained  its  current  two  thousand  and  sixty-three  years 
ago,  when  the  combined  consular  armies  of  Livius  and  Nero  en- 
countered and  crushed  near  its  banks  the  varied  hosts  which 
Hannibal's  brother  was  leading  from  the  Pyrenees,  the  Rhone, 
the  Alps,  and  the  Po,  to  aid  the  great  Carthaginian  in  his  stem 
struggle  to  annihilate  the  growing  might  of  the  Roman  repub- 
lic, and  make  the  Punic  power  supreme  over  all  the  nations  of 
the  world. 

The  Roman  historian,  who  termed  that  struggle  the   most 

memorable  of  all  wars  that  ever  were  carried  on,*  wrote  in  no 

spirit  of  exaggeration  ;  for  it  is  not  in  ancient,  but  in  modern 

history,  that  parallels  for  its  incidents  and  its  heroes  aro  to  bfl 

•  Livy,  lib.  xxi.,  sec    I. 


B  AT  T  L  E     OF     THE     METAUK  L  S.  97 

fcund  The  similitude  between  the  contest  which  Rome  main- 
tamed  against  Hannibal,  and  that  which  England  was  for  many 
years  engaged  in  against  Napoleon,  has  not  passed  unobserved 
by  recent  historians.  "  Twice,"  says  Arnold,*  "  has  there  bo?n 
witnessed  the  struggle  of"  the  highest  individual  genius  against 
t  he  resources  and  institutions  of  a  great  nation,  and  in  both  cases 
the  nation  has  been  victorious.  For  seventeen  years  Hannibal 
strove  against  Rome;  for  sixteen  years  Napoleon  Bouapaite 
strove  against  England  :  the  efforts  of  the  first  ended  in  Zama  ; 
Miose  of  the  second,  in  Waterloo."  One  point,  however,  of  the 
similitude  between  the  two  wars  has  scarcely  been  adequately 
dwelt  on  ;  that  is,  the  remarkable  parallel  between  the  Roman 
goneral  who  finally  defeated  the  great  Carthaginian,  and  the 
English  general  who  gave  the  last  deadly  overthrow  to  the 
French  emperor.  Scipio  and  Wellington  both  held  for  many 
years  commands  of  high  importance,  but  distant  from  the  main 
theatres  of  warfare.  The  same  country  was  the  scene  of  the 
principal  militaiy  career  of  each.  It  was  in  Spain  that  Scipio, 
like  Wellington,  successively  encountered  and  overthrew  nearly 
all  the  subordinate  generals  of  the  enemy  before  being  opposed 
to  the  chief  champion  and  conqueror  himself.  Both  Scipio  and 
Wellington  restored  their  countrymen's  confidence  in  arms  when 
shaken  by  a  series  of  reverses,  and  each  of  them  closed  a  long 
and  perilous  war  by  a  complete  and  overwhelming  defeat  of  the 
chosen  leader  and  the  chosen  veterans  of  the  foe. 

Nor  is  the  parallel  between  them  limited  to  their  military 
characters  and  exploits.  Scipio,  like  Wellington,  became  an  im- 
portant leader  of  the  aristocratic  party  among  his  countrymen, 
and  was  exposed  to  the  unmeasured  invectives  of  the  violent  sec- 
tion of  his  political  antagonists.  When,  early  in  the  last  reign, 
an  infuriated  mob  assaulted  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the 
streets  of  the  English  capital  on  the  anniversary  of  Waterloo, 
England  was  even  more  disgraced  by  that  outrage  than  Rome 
was  by  the  factious  accusations  which  demagogues  brought 
against  Scipio,  but  M'hich  he  proudly  repelled  on  the  day  of  trial 
by  reminding  the  assembled  people  that  it  was  the  anniversary 
of  the  battle  of  Zama.  Happily,  a  wiser  and  a  better  spirit  has 
now  for  years  pervaded  all  classes  of  our  community,  and  wo 
shall  V  spared  the  ignominy  of  having  worked  out  to  the  end 
»  Vol.  iii.,  p.  62  See  also  Alison,  paatim. 
E 


98  iJATTLEOFTHEMETAOaUS. 

the  parallel  of  national  ingratitude.  Scipio  died  a  voluntary  e\ 
lie  from  the  malevolent  turbulence  of  Rome.  Englishmen  of  all 
ranks  and  politics  have  now  long  united  in  affectionate  admira- 
tion of  our  modern  Scipio  ;  and  even  those  who  have  most  wide- 
ly differed  from  the  duke  on  legislative  or  administrative  ques 
tions,  forget  what  they  deem  the  political  errors  of  that  time- 
honored  head,  Avhile  they  gratefully  call  to  mind  the  laurels  that 
havs  wreathed  it. 

Sr;ipio  at  Zama  trampled  in  the  dust  the  power  of  Carthage  , 
but  that  power  had  been  already  irreparably  shattered  in  anoth- 
er field,  where  neither  Scipio  nor  Hannibal  commanded.  When 
the  Metam-us  witnessed  the  defeat  and  death  of  Hasdrubal,  it 
witnei5sed  the  ruin  of  the  scheme  by  which  alone  Carthage  cf)uld 
hope  to  organize  decisive  success  —  the  scheme  of  enveloping 
Rome  at  once  from  the  north  and  the  south  of  Italy  by  two  cho- 
sen armies,  led  by  tAvo  sons  of  Hamilcar.*  That  battle  was  the 
determining  crisis  of  the  contest,  not  merely  between  Rome  and 
Carthage,  but  between  the  two  great  families  of  the  world, 
which  then  made  Italy  the  arena  of  their  oft-renewed  contest 
for  pre-eminence. 

The  French  historian,  Michelet,  whose  "  Histoire  Romaine" 
would  have  been  invaluable  if  the  general  industry  and  accu- 
racy of  the  writer  had  in  any  degree  equaled  his  originality  and 
brilliancy,  eloquently  remarks,  "It  is  not  without  reason  that  so 
universal  and  vivid  a  remembrance  jf  the  Punic  wars  has  dwelt 
in  the  memories  of  men.  They  formed  no  mere  struggle  to  de- 
termine the  lot  of  two  cities  or  two  empires  ;  but  it  was  a  strife, 
on  the  event  of  which  depended  the  fate  of  two  races  of  man- 
kind, whether  the  dominion  of  the  world  should  belong  to  the 
Indo-Germanic  or  to  the  Semitic  family  of  nations.  Bear  in 
mind  that  the  first  of  these  comprises,  besides  the  Indians  and 
the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Germans.  la 
the  other  are  ranked  the  Jews  and  the  Arabs,  the  Phoenicians 
an-  the  Carthaginians.  On  the  one  side  is  the  genius  of  hero- 
ism, of  art,  and  legi.slation  ;  on  the  other  is  the  spirit  of  industry, 
of  commerce,  of  navigation.  The  two  opposite  races  have  ev'"ry 
where  come  into  contact,  every  whero  into  hostility.  In  tho 
primitive  history  of  Persia  and  Chaldea,  the  heroes  are  perpet- 
ually engaged  in  combat  with  their  industrious  and  perfidioju 
*  See  Arnold,  vol.  iii.,  387. 


B  A  VV  1,  E     C  P     THE     .M  E  T  A  U  R  U  S.  i^6 

neighbors.  The  slrugfjrle  is  renewed  bttween  the  Plioenic.au8 
ami  the  'Jieeks  on  every  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  The 
GrRek  supplants  the  Phoenician  in  all  his  factories,  all  his  co:i:- 
iiies  in  the  East  :  soon  will  the  Roman  come,  and  do  likewise  in 
the  West.  Alexander  did  far  more  ajjainst  Tyre  than  Salinana- 
ear  or  Nahuchodouosor  had  done.  Not  content  with  crushinfj 
her,  he  took  care  that  she  never  should  revive  ;  for  he  founded 
Alexandria  as  her  substitute,  and  changed  forever  the  track  of 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  There  remained  Carthage — the 
great  Carthage,  and  her  niighty  empire — mighty  in  a  far  difler- 
ent  degree  than  Phoenicia's  had  been.  Rome  annihilated  it. 
Then  occurred  that  which  has  no  parallel  in  history — an  entire 
civilization  perished  at  one  blow — vanished,  like  a  falling  star. 
The  "  Periplus"  of  Hanno,  a  few  coins,  a  score  of  lines  in  Plau- 
tus,  and,  lo,  all  that  remain.s  of  the  Carthaginian  world  I 

"  Many  generations  must  needs  pass  away  before  the  struggle 
between  the  two  races  could  be  renewed  ;  and  the  Arabs,  that 
formidable  rear-guard  of  the  Semitic  world,  dashed  forth  from 
their  deserts.  The  conflict  betAveen  the  two  races  then  became 
the  conflict  of  two  religions.  Fortunate  was  it  that  those  dar- 
ing Saracenic  cavaliers  encountered  in  the  East  the  impregnable 
walls  of  Constantinople,  in  the  West  the  chivalrous  valor  of 
Charles  Mattel  and  the  sword  of  the  Cid.  The  crusades  were 
the  natural  reprisals  for  the  Arab  invasions,  and  form  the  last 
<;poch  of  that  great  struggle  between  the  two  principal  families 
if  the  h  iman  race." 

It  is  c  fficult,  amid  the  glimmering  light  supplied  by  the  aliu' 
fiious  of  I  le  classical  writers,  to  gain  a  full  idea  of  the  character 
and  institutions  of  Rome's  great  rival.  But  we  can  perceive 
how  inferior  Carthage  was  to  her  competitor  in  military  resources, 
and  how  far  less  fitted  than  Rome  she  was  to  become  the  founder 
of  centralized  and  centralizing  dominion,  that  should  endure  for 
centur  es,  an<  fuse  into  imperial  unity  the  narrow  nationalities 
oi  the  ancient  races,  that  dwelt  around  and  near  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

Carthage  was  originally  neither  the  most  ancient  nor  the  most 
powerful  of  the  numerous  colonies  which  the  Phoenicians  planted 
Dn  the  coast  of  Northern  Africa.  But  her  advantageous  posi- 
tion, the  cxcell'Mice  of  her  constitution  (of  which,  though  ill  in- 
foiu-»d  as  to  its  details,  we  know  that  it  comu^anded  the  admi 


,00  BATTLE     Ol'     THE     ME  TAURUS. 

nation  of  Aristotle),  and  the  commercial  and  political  eiiei'gj'  oi 
her  citizens,  gave  her  the  ascendency  over  Hippo,  Utica,  Leptis, 
and  her  other  sister  Phoenician  cities  in  those  regions  ;  and  sh»! 
finally  reduced  them  to  a  condition  of  dependency,  similar  to 
that  which  the  subject  allies  of  Athens  occupied  relatively  tc 
that  once  imperial  city.  When  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  othoi 
cities  of  Phoenicia  itself  sank  from  independent  republics  into 
mere  vassal  states  of  the  great  Asiatic  monarchies,  and  obeyed 
by  turns  a  Babylonian,  a  Persian,  and  a  Macedonian  master,  their 
power  and  their  traffic  rapidly  declined,  and  Carthage  succeeded 
to  the  important  maritime  and  commercial  character  which  they 
had  previously  maintained.  The  Carthaginians  did  not  seek  to 
compete  with  the  Greeks  on  the  northeastern  shores  of  the  Med- 
iterranean, or  in  the  three  inland  seas  which  are  connected  with 
it ;  but  they  maintained  an  active  intercourse  with  the  Phceni- 
cians,  and  through  them  with  Lower  and  Central  Asia  ;  and  they, 
and  they  alone,  after  the  decline  and  fall  of  Tyre,  navigated  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic.  They  had  the  monopoly  of  all  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  that  was  carried  on  beyond  the  Straits  of  Gib- 
raltar. ■  We  have  yet  extant  (in  a  Greek  translation)  the  narra- 
tive of  the  voyage  of  Hanno,  one  of  their  admirals,  along  the 
western  coast  of  Africa  as  far  as  Sierra  Leone  ;  and  in  the  Latin 
poem  of  Festus  Avienus,  frequent  references  are  made  to  the  rec- 
ords of  the  voyages  of  another  celebrated  Carthaginian  admiral, 
Himilco,  who  had  explored  the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe. 
Our  own  islands  are  mentioned  by  Himilco  as  the  lands  of  the 
Hiberni  and  the  Albioni.  It  is  indeed  certain  that  the  Cartha- 
ginians frequented  the  Cornish  coast  (as  the  Phujnicians  had 
done  before  them)  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  tin  ;  and  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  they  sailed  as  far  as  the  coasts  of 
the  Baltic  for  amber.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  mari- 
ner's compass  was  unknown  in  those  ages,  the  boldness  and  skill 
of  the  seamen  of  Carthage,  and  the  enterprise  of  her  merchantSj 
may  be  paralleled  with  any  achievements  that  the  history  ol 
fncdorn  navigation  and  commerce  can  produce. 

In  their  Atlantic  voyages  along  the  Airicau  shores,  the  Cartha- 
ginians followed  the  double  object  of  traffic  and  colonization. 
The  numerous  settlements  that  were  planted  by  them  along  the 
coast  from  Morocco  to  Senegal  provided  for  the  needy  members 
«f  the  constantly  increasing  population  of  a  great  commerciai 


BATTLE     OF      I  II  f.     M  li  T  A  U  R  U  3.  103 

rapilul;  and  .also  strenj^thened  the  influence  vvliich  Carlliafje  ex- 
ercised among  the  tribes  of  the  African  coast.  Besides  Iier  fleets, 
hor  caravans  gave  her  a  large  and  lucrative  trade  with  the  na 
live  Africans  ;  nor  must  we  limit  our  belief  of  the  extent  of  the 
(Carthaginian  trade  with  the  tribes  of  Central  and  Western  Af- 
lica  by  the  narrowness  of  the  commercial  intercourse  which  civ- 
ilized nations  of  modern  times  have  been  able  to  create  in  those 
egions. 

Although  essentially  a  mercantile  and  seafaring  people,  the 
Carthaginians  by  no  means  neglected  agriculture.  On  the  con- 
tra r}s  the  whole  of  their  territory  was  cultivated  like  a  garden. 
The  fertility  of  the  soil  repaid  the  skill  and  toil  bestowed  on  it ; 
and  every  invader,  from  Agathocles  to  Scipio  iEmilianus,  was 
struck  with  admiration  at  the  rich  pasture  lands  carefully  irri- 
gated, the  abundant  harvests,  the  luxuriant  vineyards,  the  plant- 
ations of  fig  and  olive  trees,  the  thriving  villages,  the  populous 
towns,  and  the  splendid  Adllas  of  the  wealthy  Carthaginians, 
through  which  his  march  lay,  as  long  as  he  was  on  Carthagiuiau 
ground. 

Although  the  Carthaginians  abandoned  the  ^Egsean  and  the 
Pontus  to  the  Greek,  they  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  relin 
quish  to  those  rivals  the  commerce  and  the  domiiiioii  of  the  coasts 
of  the  Mediterranean  westward  of  Italy  For  centuries  the  Car- 
thaginians strove  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  islands  that 
he  between  Italy  and  Spain.  They  acquired  the  Balearic  Isl- 
ands, where  the  principal  harbor,  Port  Mahon,  still  bears  the 
name  of  a  Carthaginian  admiral.  They  succeeded  in  reducing 
the  great  part  of  Sardinia ;  but  Sicily  could  never  be  brought 
into  their  power.  They  repeatedly  invaded  that  island,  and 
nearly  overran  it ;  but  the  resistance  which  was  opposed  to- 
them  by  the  Syracusans  under  Gelon,  Dionysius,  Timoleon,  and 
Agathocles,  preserved  the  island  from  becoming  Punic,  though 
many  of  its  cities  remained  under  the  Carthaginian  rule  until 
Rome  finally  settled  the  question  to  Avhom  Sicily  was  to  belong 
by  conquering  it  for  herself. 

With  so  many  elements  of  success,  with  almost  unbounded 
wealth,  with  commercial  and  maritime  activity,  with  a  fertile 
territory,  with  a  capital  city  of  almost  impregnable  strength, 
with  a  constitution  that  insured  for  centuries  the  blessing  of  eo- 
rual  Older,  with  an  aristocracy  singularly  fertile  in  men  of  the 


t03  BATILB     OF     THE     ME      AlKLTS. 

highest  erenius,  Carthage  yet  failed  signally  and  calami tously  in 
her  contest  for  power  with  Rome.  One  of  the  immediate  causes 
of  this  may  seem  to  have  heen  the  want  of  firmness  among  hei 
citizens,  which  made  them  terminate  the  first  Punic  war  by  beg- 
ging peace,  sooner  than  endure  any  longer  the  hardships  and 
burdens  caused  by  a  state  of  warfare,  although  their  antagonists 
had  sufii-red  far  more  severely  than  themselves.  Another  cans 
was  the  spirit  of  faction  among  their  leading  men,  which  prevent 
ed  Hannibal  in  the  second  war  from  being  properly  re-enforced 
and  supported.  But  there  were  also  moro  general  causes  why 
Carthage  proved  inferior  to  Eome.  These  were  her  position  rel- 
atively to  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  which  she 
ruled,  and  her  habit  of  trusting  to  mercenary  armies  in  her  wars. 

Our  clearest  information  as  to  the  different  races  of  men  in  and 
about  Carthage  is  derived  from  Diodorus  Siculus.*  That  histo 
rian  enumerates  four  diflerent  races  :  first,  he  mentions  the  Phoe- 
nicians who  dwelt  in  Carthage  ;  next,  he  speaks  of  the  Liby- 
Phcenicians  :  these,  he  tells  us,  dwelt  in  many  of  the  maritime 
cities,  and  were  connected  by  intermarriages  with  the  Phoeni- 
cians, which  was  the  cause  of  their  compound  name  ;  thirdly, 
he  mentions  the  Libyans,  the  bulk  and  the  most  ancient  part  of 
the  population,  hating  the  Carthaginians  intensely  on  account 
of  the  oppressiveness  of  their  domination  ;  lastly,  he  names  the 
JNumidians,  the  nomade  tribes  of  the  frontier. 

It  is  evident,  from  this  description,  that  the  native  Libyans 
were  a  subject  class,  without  franchise  or  political  rights  ;  and, 
accordingly,  we  find  no  instance  specified  in  history  of  a  Libyan 
holding  political  office  or  military  command.  The  half-castes, 
the  Liby-Phosnicians,  seem  to  have  been  sometimes  sent  out  as 
colonists  ;t  but  it  may  be  inferred,  from  what  Diodorus  says  of 
their  residence,  that  they  had  not  the  right  of  the  citizenship  ol 
Carthage  ;  and  only  a  single  solitary  case  occurs  of  one  of  this 
race  being  intrusted  with  authority,  and  that,  too,  not  emanating 
from  the  home  gc  vernment.  This  is  the  instance  of  the  ofiicer 
gent  by  Hanniba'.  to  Sicily  after  the  fall  of  Syracuse,  whom  Po- 
lybiusj  calls  Myttinus  the  Libyan,  but  whom,  from  the  fuller  ac- 
count in  Livy,  we  find  to  have  been  a  Liby-Pha;nician  ;^  and  it 
is  expressly  mentioned  what  indignation  was  felt  by  the  Cartha- 

•  Vol.  ii.,  p.  447,  Wesseling's  ed.  t  See  the  "  Periplus"  of  Ilanno 

J  Lii>.  IX.,  28.  <)  Lib.  xxv.,  40, 


BATTLE     OF     THE     METATRUS.  103 

^^iU^A  roimnanders  in  the  island  that  this  half-caste  should  con- 
rrcu  their  operations. 

Willi  respect  to  the  composition  of  their  armies,  it  is  observa- 
ble that,  though  ihirsling  for  extended  em])ire,  and  though  some 
of  her  leading  men  became  generals  of  the  highest  order,  the  Car 
thaginians,  as  a  people,  wne  any  thing  but  personally  warlike. 
As  long  as  they  could  hire  mercenaries  to  fight  for  them,  they 
had  little  appetite  for  the  irksome  training  and  the  loss  of  valu- 
a])lo  time  which  military  service  would  have  entailed  on  thern- 
Bclves. 

As  Michelet  remarks,  "  The  life  of  an  industrious  merchant, 
of  a  Carthaginian,  was  too  preciovxs  to  be  risked,  as  long  as  it  was 
possible  to  substitute  advantageously  for  it  that  of  a  barbarian 
from  Spain  or  Gaul.  Carthage  knew,  and  could  tell  to  a  drach- 
ma, what  the  life  of  a  man  of  each  nation  came  to.  A  Greek 
was  worth  more  than  a  Campanian,  a  Campanian  worth  more 
than  a  Gaul  or  a  Spaniard.  When  once  this  tariff  of  blood  was 
correctly  made  out,  Carthage  began  a  war  as  a  mercantile  spec- 
ulation. She  tried  to  make  conquests  in  the  hope  of  getting  new 
mines  to  work,  or  to  open  fresh  markets  for  her  exports.  In  one 
venture  she  could  afford  to  spend  fifty  thousand  mercenaries,  in 
another  rather  more.  If  the  returns  were  good,  there  was  no  re- 
gret felt  for  the  capital  that  had  been  sunk  in  the  investment ; 
more  money  got  more  men,  and  all  went  on  well."* 

Armies  composed  of  foreign  mercenaries  have  in  all  ages  been 
as  formidable  to  their  employers  as  to  the  enemy  against  whom 
they  were  directed.  We  know  of  one  occasion  (between  the  first 
and  second  Punic  wars)  when  Carthage  was  brought  to  the  very 
brink  of  desti'uction  by  a  revolt  of  her  foreign  troops.  Other  mu- 
tinies of  the  sajiie  kind  must  from  time  to  time  have  occurred. 
Probably  one  of  these  was  the  cause  of  the  comparative  weak- 
ness of  Carthage  at  the  time  of  the  Athenian  expedition  agaiu.st 
Syracuse,  so  dill'erent  from  the  energy  with  which  she  attacked 
Gelon  half  a  century  earlier,  and  Dionysius  half  a  century  later. 
And  even  when  we  consider  her  armies  with  reference  only  to 
their  efficiency  in  warfare,  we  perceive  at  once  the  inferiority  of 
But'h  bands  of  condoltieri,  brought  together  without  any  coininoii 
bond  of  origin,  tactics,  or  cause,  to  the  legions  of  Rome,  vvliich, 
at  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars,  were  raised  from  the  very  liowei 
•  "  Histoire  Roinaine,"  vol  ii ,  p.  40. 


1  04  BATTLE     OF     THE     M  E  T  A  U  R  U  S. 

oi'  a  hardy  agri  cultural  population,  trained  in  the  strictest  disci 
pliue.  habituated  to  victory,  and  animated  by  the  most  resohite 
patriotism.  And  this  shows,  also,  the  transcendency  of  the  geniua 
of  Hannibal,  which  could  form  such  discordant  materials  into  a 
compact  organized  force,  and  inspire  them  with  tnc  spirit  of  pa- 
tient discipline  and  loyalty  to  their  chief,  so  that  thoy  were  true 
to  him  in  his  adverse  as  well  as  in  his  prosperous  fortunes ;  and 
throughout  the  checkered  series  of  his  campaigns,  no  nanic  rout 
tver  disgraced  a  division  under  his  command,  no  mutiny,  or  even 
ttttempt  at  mutiny,  was  ev^er  known  in  his  camp  ;  and  finally, 
after  fifteen  years  of  Italian  warfare,  his  men  followed  their  old 
leader  to  Zama,  "  with  no  fear  and  little  hope,"*  and  there,  on 
that  disastrous  field,  stood  firm  around  him,  his  Old  Guard,  till 
Scipio's  Numidian  allies  came  up  on  their  flank,  when  at  last, 
surrounded  and  overpowered,  the  veteran  battalions  sealed  their 
devotion  to  their  general  by  their  hlood  I 

"  But  if  Hannibal's  genius  may  be  likened  to  the  Homeric  god, 
who,  in  his  hatred  to  the  Trojans,  rises  from  the  deep  to  rally  the 
fainting  Greeks  and  to  lead  them  against  the  enemy,  so  the  calm 
courage  with  which  Hector  met  his  more  than  human  adversary 
in  his  country's  cause  is  no  unworthy  image  of  the  miyielding 
magnanimity  displayed  by  the  aristocracy  of  Rome.  As  Hanni- 
bal utterly  eclipses  Carthage,  so,  on  the  contrary,  Fabius,  M  arceJ- 
lus,  Claudius  Nero,  even  Scipio  himself,  are  as  nothing  when 
co'..pared  to  the  spii'it,  and  wisdom,  and  power  of  Rome.  The 
senate,  which  voted  its  thanks  to  its  political  enemy,  Varro,  after 
his  disastrous  defeat,  '  because  he  had  not  despaired  of  the  com- 
monwealth," and  which  disdained  either  to  solicit,  or  to  reprove, 
or  to  threaten,  or  in  any  way  to  notice  the  twelve  colonies  which 
had  refused  their  accustomed  supplies  of  men  for  the  army,  is  far 
more  to  be  honored  than  the  conqueror  of  Zama.  This  we  should 
the  more  carefully  bear  in  mind,  because  our  tendency  is  to  ad- 
mire individual  greatness  far  more  than  national ;  and,  as  no 
singlo  Roman  will  bear  comparison  to  Hannibal,  we  are  apt  tc 
murmur  at  the  event  of  the  contest,  and  to  think  that  the  victory 
was  awarded  to  the  least  worthy  of  the  combatants.  On  tbu 
contrary,  never  was  the  wisdom  of  God's  providence  more  mani- 
fest than  in  tlic  issue  of  the  struggle  between  Rome  and  Carthage. 

*  "We  advanced  to  Waterloo  as  the  Greeks  did  to  TliermDpylai :  all 
•f  us  without  fear,  and  most  of  us  without  hope." — Speech  of  General  Foy 


BATTLE     OF     THi      MUIAURUS.  i06 

It  was  clearly  for  the  good  ol"  mankind  that  Hannibal  should  b« 
conquered  ;  his  triumph  would  have  stopped  the  progress  of  the 
world  ;  for  great  men  can  only  act  permanently  by  forming  great 
nations;  and  no  one  man,  even  though  it  were  Hannibal  him- 
sAi',  can  in  one  generation  eflect  such  a  work.  But  where  the 
nation  has  been  merely  enkindled  lor  a  while  by  a  great  man's 
ejiirit,  the  light  passes  away  with  him  who  communicated  it  ; 
atul  the  nation,  when  he  is  gone,  is  like  a  dead  body,  to  which 
magic  power  had  for  a  moment  given  unnatural  life  :  when  the 
charm  ha&  ceased,  the  body  is  cold  and  stiif  as  before.  He  who 
grieves  over  the  battle  of  Zama  should  carry  on  his  thoughts  to 
a  period  thirty  years  later,  when  Hannibal  must,  in  the  course 
of  nature  have  been  dead,  and  consider  how  the  isolated  Phoeni- 
cian city  of  Carthage  was  fitted  to  receive  and  to  consolidate  the 
civilization  of  Greece,  or  by  its  laws  and  institutions  to  bind  to- 
gether barbarians  of  every  race  and  language  into  an  organized 
empire,  and  prepare  them  for  becoming,  when  that  empire  Avas 
dissolved,  the  free  members  of  the  commonwealth  of  Christian 
Europe.'"* 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  207  B.C.  that  Hasdrubal,  after  skill- 
fidly  disentangling  himself  from  the  Roman  forces  in  Spain,  and 
after  a  march  conducted  with  great  judgment  and  little  loss 
through  the  intei'ior  of  Gaul  and  the  passes  of  tlie  Alps,  appear 
ed  in  the  country  that  now  is  the  north  of  Lombardy  at  the  head 
of  troops  which  he  had  partly  brought  out-  of  Spain  and  partly 
levied  among  the  Gauls  and  Ligurians  on  his  way.  At  this  time 
Hannibal,  with  his  unconquered  and  seemingly  unconquerable 
army,  had  been  eight  years  in  Italy,  executing  with  strenuous 
ferocity  the  vow  of  hatred  to  Rome  which  had  been  sworn  by 
him  while  yet  a  child  at  the  bidding  of  his  father  Hamilcar ; 
who,  as  he  boasted,  had  trained  up  his  three  sons,  Hannibal,  Has- 
Irubal,  and  Mago,  like  three  lion's  whelps,  to  prey  upon  the  Ro 
mans.  But  Hannibal's  latter  campaigns  had  not  been  signalized 
by  nny  such  great  victories  as  marked  the  first  years  of  his  in- 
vasion of  Italy.  The  stern  spirit  of  Roman  resolution,  ever  high- 
js',  in  disaster  and  danger,  had  neither  bent  nor  despaired  be- 

"  Arnol'],  vol.  iii.,  p.  61.  The  above  is  one  of  the  numerous  bursts  ol 
eloquence  that  adorn  Arnold's  last  volume,  and  cause  such  deep  rcgrel 
that  that  volume  should  have  been  the  last,  and  its  great  and  good  auihoi 
bave  beec  cut  off  with  his  work  thus  incomplete. 


106  BATTLE     OF     THE     M  E  T  A  tJ  R  Cf  ». 

neath  the  merciless  LIoavs  which  "  the  dire  African"  dealt  hot 
in  rapid  succession  at  Trebia,  at  Thrasymene,  and  at  Cannaj 
Her  population  was  thinned  by  repeated  slaughter  in  the  field  ; 
poverty  and  actual  scarcity  groiind  down  the  survivors,  through 
the  fearful  ravages  which  Hannibal's  cavalry  spread  through 
their  corn-fields,  their  pasture  lands,  and  their  vineyards  ;  many 
oi  her  allies  went  over  to  the  invader's  side  ;  and  new  clouds  of 
furoigr  war  threatened  her  from  Macedonia  and  Gaul.  But 
Rome  receded  not  Rich  and  poor  among  her  citizens  vied  witli 
each  other  in  devotion  to  their  country.  "The  wealthy  placed 
their  stores,  and  all  placed  their  lives,  at  tVe  state's  disposal 
And  though  Hannibal  could  not  be  driven  out  of  Italy,  though 
every  year  brought  its  sufferings  and  sacrifices,  Rome  felt  that 
her  constancy  had  not  been  exerted  in  vain.  If  she  was  weak 
ened  by  the  continued  strife,  so  was  Hannibal  also  ;  and  it  was 
clear  that  the  unaided  resources  of  his  army  were  unequal  to  the 
task  of  her  destruction.  The  single  deer-hound  could  not  pul] 
down  the  quarry  which  he  had  so  furiously  assailed.  Rome  not 
only  stood  fiercely  at  bay,  but  had  pressed  back  and  gored  her 
antagonist,  that  still,  however,  watched  her  in  act  to  spring.  She 
was  M'eary,  and  bleeding  at  every  pore  ;  and  there  seemed  to  be 
little  hope  of  her  escape,  if  the  other  hound  of  old  Ilamilcar's  race 
should  come  up  in  time  to  aid  his  brother  in  the  death-grapple. 
Hasdrubal  had  commanded  the  Carthaginian  armies  in  Spain 
for  some  time  with,  varying  but  generally  unfavorable  fortune. 
He  had  not  the  full  authority  over  the  Punic  forces  in  that  coun 
try  which  his  brother  and  his  father  had  previously  exercised. 
The  faction  at  Carthage,  which  was  at  feud  with  his  family, 
succeeded  in  fettering  and  interfering  with  his  power  ;  and  other 
generals  were  from  time  to  time  sent  into  Spain,  M'hose  errors 
and  misconduct  caused  the  reverses  that  Hasdrubal  met  with. 
This  is  expressly  attested  by  the  Greek  historian  Polybius,  who 
was  the  intimate  friend  of  the  younger  Afri.-^anus,  and  drew  hia 
information  respecting  the  second  Punic  war  .  im  the  best  pos- 
sible authorities.  Livy  gives  a  long  narrative  o.  •campaigns  be- 
tween the  Roman  conmianders  in  Spain  and  Hasu  i:bal,  which 
is  so  palpably  deformed  by  fictions  anl  exaggerations  as  to  be 
hardly  deserving  of  attention.* 

*  See  tne  excellent  criticisms  of  Sir  Walter  Raltjgh  on  tliia,  in  \i» 
"History  of  the  World,"  book  v.,  chap.  iji.  see   11. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     METAUVaS.  107 

It  is  cleir  that,  in  the  year  208  B.C.,  at  least,  Hasdrubal  out 
maneuvered  Pnblius  Scipio,  who  held  the  command  of  the  Ro 
man  forces  in  Spain,  and  whose  object  was  to  prevent  him  from 
j)as.slii<r  the  Pyrenees  and  marching  upon  Italy.  Scipio  expected 
that  Hasdrubal  would  attempt  the  nearest  route  along  the  coa.'-t 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  he  therefore  carefully  fortified  anu 
guarded  the  passes  of  the  eastern  Pyrenees.  But  Hasdrubal 
passed  these  mountains  near  their  western  extremity  ;  and  then, 
with  a  considerable  force  of  Spanish  infantry,  with  a  small  inim- 
ber  of  African  troops,  with  some  elephants  and  nuich  treasure, 
he  marched,  not  directly  toward  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean, 
but  in  a  northeastern  line  toward  the  centre  of  Gaul.  He  halt- 
ed for  the  winter  in  the  territory  of  the  Arverni,  the  modern  Au- 
vergne,  and  conciliated  or  purchased  the  good  will  of  the  Gauls 
in  that  region  so  far  that  he  not  only  found  I'riendly  winter  quar- 
ters among  them,  but  great  numbers  of  them  enlisted  under  him  ; 
and  on  the  approach  of  spring,  marched  with  him  to  invade  Italy. 

By  thus  entering  Gaul  at  the  southwest,  and  avoiding  its  south- 
ern maritime  districts,  Hasdrubal  kept  the  Romans  in  complete 
ignorance  ol'  his  pi'ecise  operations  and  movements  in  that  coun- 
try ;  all  that  they  knew  was  that  Hasdrubal  had  baffled  Scipio'a 
attempts  to  detain  him  in  Spain  ;  that  he  had  crossed  the  Pyre- 
nees with  soldiers,  elephants,  and  money,  and  that  he  was  rais 
ing  fresh  forces  among  the  Gauls.  The  spring  was  sure  to  bring 
him  into  Italy,  and  then  would  come  the  real  tempest  of  the  war, 
M'hen  from  the  north  and  from  the  south  the  two  Carthaginian 
armies,  each  under  a  son  of  the  Thunderbolt,*  were  to  gath^» 
together  around  the  seven  hills  of  Rome. 

In  this  emergency  the  Romans  looked  among  themselves  earn- 
estly and  anxiously  for  leaders  fit  to  meet  the  perils  of  the  com- 
ing campaign. 

The  senate  recommended  the  people  to  elect,  as  one  of  their 
consuls,  Caius  Claudius  Nero,  a  patrician  of  one  of  the  famihe" 
of  the  great  ClaucLf-n  house.  Nero  had  served  during  the  prt 
ceding  years  of  the  war  both  against  Hannibal  in  Italy  and 
against  Hasdrubal  in  Spain  ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  th;;  his- 
tones  which  we  possess  record  no  successes  as  having  been 
achieved  by  liim  either  before  or  after  his  great  campaign  rl  the 
*  Hamilcar  was  surnained  Barc-a,  which  means  the  ThunJcr  bolt  S*a 
tan  Bajazet  had  the  similar  surname  of  Yilderiii 


108  BATTLE     OF     THE     METAURUfe. 

Metaurus.  It  proves  much  for  the  sagacity  of  the  leading  mesl 
of  the  senate  that  they  recognized  iu  Nero  the  energy  and  spirit 
Avhich  were  required  at  this  crisis,  and  it  is  equally  creditable 
to  the  patriotism  of  the  people  that  they  followed"the  advice  ot 
the  senate  by  electing  a  general  who  had  no  showy  exploits  to 
rerorninend  him  to  their  choice. 

It  was  a  matter  of  greater  difficulty  to  find  a  second  consul ;  the 
laws  recjuirsd  that  one  consul  should  be  a  plebeian  ;  and  the  pie 
bc-ian  nnbilitj  had  been  fearfully  thinned  by  the  events  of  the 
war.  While  the  senators  anxiously  deliberated  among  them- 
selves what  fit  colleague  for  Nero  could  be  nominated  at  the 
coming  comitia,  and  sorrowfully  recalled  the  names  of  Marcel- 
lus,  Gracchus,  and  other  plebeian  generals  who  were  no  more, 
one  taciturn  and  moody  old  man  sat  in  sullen  apathy  among  the 
conscript  fathers.  This  was  Marcus  Livius,  w^ho  had  been  con 
8ul  in  the  year  before  the  beginning  of  this  war,  and  had  ther 
gained  a  victory  over  the  Illyrians.  After  his  consuLship  he  had 
been  impeached  before  the  people  on  a  charge  of  peculation  and 
unfair  division  of  the  spoils  among  his  soldiers  ;  the  verdict  was 
unjustly  given  agamst  him,  and  the  sense  of  this  wrong,  and  of 
the  indignity  thus  put  iipon  him,  had  rankled  unceasingly  in  the 
bosom  of  Livius,  so  that  for  eight  years  after  his  trial  he  had  lived 
in  seclusion  in  his  country  seat,  taking  no  part  in  any  affairs  of 
state.  Latterly  the  censors  had  compelled  him  to  come  to  Rome 
and  resume  his  place  in  the  senate,  where  he  used  to  sit  gloomily 
apart,  giving  only  a  silent  vote.  At  last  an  unjust  accusation 
against  one  of  his  near  kinsmen  made  him  break  silence,  and  he 
harangued  the  house  in  words  of  weight  and  sense,  which  drew 
attention  to  him,  and  taught  the  senators  that  a  strong  spirit 
dwelt  beneath  that  unimposing  exterior.  Now,  while  they  were 
df.bating  on  what  noble  of  a  plebeian  house  was  fit  to  assume 
the  perilous  honors  of  the  consulate,  some  of  the  elder  of  them 
looked  on  Marcus  Livius,  and  remembered  that  in  the  very  last 
triumph  which  had  been  celebrated  in  the  streets  of  Home,  th'.s 
2frim  old  man  had  sat  in  the  car  of  victory,  and  that  he  had  of 
fered  the  last  thanksgiving  sacrifice  for  the  success  of  the  Roman 
arms  which  had  bled  before  Capitoliiic  Jove.  There  had  been 
no  triumphs  since  Hannibal  came  into  Italy.  The  Illyrian  cam- 
paign of  Livius  was  the  last  that  had  been  so  honored  ;  perhaps 
it  might  bn  destined  for  him  now  to  renew  the  long-interruptec 


BATTLU     ur     T1£K     M  K  T  A  U  R  U  S.  10^ 

Beii(  s.  The  senators  resolved  that  Livius  should  be  put  in  noni« 
iiiutiou  as  consul  with  Nero  ;  the  people  were  willing  to  eleci 
hini  :  the  onlj'  opposition  came  from  himself.  He  taunted  them 
with  then  inconsistency  in  honoring  the  man  whom  they  had 
convicted  of  a  base  crime.  "  If  I  am  innocent,"  said  he,  "  why 
did  you  place  such  a  stain  on  me  ?  If  I  am  guilty,  why  am  I 
more  fit  fo»  a  second  consulship  than  I  was  for  my  first  one  ?" 
The  other  senators  remonstrated  with  him,  urging  the  example 
of  the  great  Camillus,  who,  after  an  unjust  condemnation  on  a 
jdrnilar  charge,  both  served  and  saved  his  country.  At  last  Liv- 
ius  ceased  to  object ;  and  Caius  Claudius  Nero  and  Marcus  Liv- 
ius were  chosen  consuls  of  Rome. 

A  quarrel  had  long  existed  between  the  two  consuls,  and  the 
senators  strove  to  efiect  a  reconciliation  between  them  before  the 
campaign.  Here  again  Livius  for  a  long  time  obstinately  resist- 
ud  the  wish  of  his  fellow-senators.  He  said  it  was  best  for  the 
state  that  he  and  Nero  should  continue  to  hate  one  another. 
Each  would  do  his  duty  better  when  he  knew  that  he  was 
watched  by  an  enemy  in  the  person  of  his  own  colleague.  Al 
last  the  entreaties  of  the  senate  prevailed,  and  Livius  consented 
to  forego  the  feud,  and  to  co-operate  with  Nero  in  preparing  for 
the  coming  struggle. 

As  soon  as  the  winter  snows  were  thawed,  Hasdrubal  com- 
menced his  march  from  Auvergne  to  the  Alps.  He  experienced 
none  of  the  ditliculties  wdiich  his  brother  had  met  with  from  the 
mountain  tribes.  Hannibal's  army  had  been  the  first  body  of 
regular  troops  that  had  ever  traversed  their  regions  ;  and,  as 
wild  animals  assail  a  traveler,  the  natives  rose  against  it  in- 
stinctively, in  imagined  defense  of  their  own  habitations,  which, 
they  supposed  to  be  the  objects  of  Carthaginian  ambition.  But 
the  fame  of  the  war,  with  which  Italy  had  now  been  convulsed 
for  twelve  years,  had  penetrated  into  the  Alpine  passes,  and  the 
mountaineers  now  understood  that  a  mighty  city  southward  of 
the  Alps  was  to  be  attacked  by  the  troops  whom  they  saw  march 
ing  among  them.  They  now  not  only  opposed  no  resistance  to 
ihe  passage  of  Hasdrubal,  but  many  of  them,  out  of  the  love  of 
enterprise  and  plunder,  or  allured  by  the  high  pay  that  ho  ofTer- 
ed,  took  service  Avith  him  ;  and  thus  he  advanced  upon  Ital) 
with  an  army  that  gathered  strength  at  every  league.  It  ia 
said,  also,  that  some  of  the  most  important  engineering  worki 


i     0  BAfTLt     OF     THE     M  E  T  A  U  R  U  i9 

wi.iich  Haujiibal  hati  cuusti-ucteJ  were  found  by  Hasdrubal  £till 
in  existence,  and  materially  favored  the  speed  of  his  advance. 
He  thus  emergt^d  into  Italy  from  the  Alpine  valleys  much  soonel 
than  had  been  anticipated.  Many  warriors  of  the  Ligurian  tribes 
joined  him  ;  and,  crossing  the  E.iA'er  Po,  he  marched  down  ita 
southern  bank  to  the  city  of  Placentia,  which  he  washed  to  se 
cure  as  a  base  for  his  future  operations.  Placentia  resisted  him 
as  bravely  as  it  had  resisted  Hannibal  twelve  years  before,  and 
for  some  time  Hasdrubal  was  occupied  with  a  fruitless  siege  be 
fore  its  walls. 

Six  armies  were  levied  for  the  defense  of  Italy  when  the  long 
dreaded  approach  of  Hasdrubal  was  announced.  Seventy  thou 
sand  Romans  served  in  the  fifteen  legions,  of  which,  with  an 
equal  number  of  Italian  allies,  those  armies  and  the  garrisons 
were  composed.  Upward  of  thirty  thousand  more  Romans  were 
serving  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Spain.  The  whole  number  of 
Roman  citizens  of  an  age  fit  for  military  duty  scarcely  exceeded 
a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand.  The  census  taken  before  the 
commencement  of  the  war  had  shown  a  total  of  two  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand,  which  had  been  dimimshed  by  more  than 
half  during  twelve  years.  These  numbers  are  fearfully  emphatic 
of  the  extremity  to  w'hich  Rome  was  reduced,  and  of  her  gigan- 
tic efibrts  in  that  great  agony  of  her  fate.  Not  merely  men,  but 
money  and  military  stores,  were  drained  to  the  utmost  ,'  and  if 
the  armies  of  that  year  should  be  swept  otFby  a  repetition  of  the 
slaughters  of  Thrasymene  and  Canna?,  all  felt  that  Rome  would 
cease  to  exist.  Even  if  the  campaign  were  to  be  marked  by  no 
decisive  success  on  either  side,  her  ruin  seemed  certain.  In  South 
Italy,  Hannibal  had  either  detached  Rome's  allies  from  her,  or 
had  impoverished  them  by  the  ravages  of  his  army.  If  Hasdru- 
bal could  have  done  the  same  in  Upper  Italy ;  if  Etniria,  Um 
bria,  and  Northern  Latium  had  either  revolted  or  been  laid 
waste,  Rome  must  have  sunk  beneath  sheer  starvation,  for  tho 
hostile  or  desolated  territory  w^ould  have  yielded  no  supplies  of 
corn  for  her  population,  and  money  to  purchase  it  from  abroad 
ihei  ?  was  none.  Instant  victory  was  a  matter  of  life  or  deaih. 
Three  of  lior  six  armies  wei"e  ordered  to  the  north,  but  the  first 
of  these  was  required  to  overawe  the  disafl'ected  Etruscans.  The 
Eecoiid  army  of  the  north  was  pushed  forward,  under  Porcius 
\he  prajtor,  to  meet  and  k  ;ep  in  check  the  f  dvanced  troops  o( 


BATTLE  OF  THE  METAUUUS.  Ill 

flaydrubal ;  while  the  third,  the  grand  army  of  the  north,  which 
was  to  be  under  the  immediate  command  of  the  consul  Livius, 
w  lio  had  the  chief  command  in  all  North  Italy,  advanced  more 
slowly  in  its  support.  Tliere  were  similarly  three  armies  in  tJie 
Bouth,  under  the  orders  of  the  other  consul,  Claudius  IMero. 

The  lot  had  decided  that  Livius  was  to  be  opposed  to  Hasdrvi 
b&l,  and  that  Nero  should  face  Hannibal.  And  "  wlien  all  wai 
ordered  as  themselves  thought  best,  the  two  consuls  went  forth 
of  the  city,  each  his  several  way  The  people  of  Rome  were 
now  quite  otherwise  afiected  than  tney  had  been  when  L.  ^mil 
ius  Paulus  and  C.  Terentius  Varro  were  sent  against  Hannibal 
They  did  no  longer  take  upon  them  to  direct  their  generals,  or 
bid  them  dispatch  and  win  the  victory  betimes,  but  rather  they 
stood  in  fear  lest  all  diligence,  wisdom,  and  valor  should  prove 
too  little  ;  for  since  few  years  had  passed  wherein  some  one  of 
their  generals  had  not  been  slain,  and  since  it  was  manifest  that, 
if  either  of  these  present  consuls  were  defeated,  or  put  to  the 
worst,  the  tAVo  Carthaginians  would  forthwith  join,  and  make 
short  work  with  the  other,  it  seemed  a  greater  happiness  than 
could  be  expected  that  each  of  them  should  return  home  victor, 
and  come  ofl'  with  honor  from  such  mighty  opposition  as  he  was 
like  to  find.  With  extreme  difficulty  had  Rome  held  up  her  head 
ever  since  the  battle  of  Cannfe  ;  though  it  were  so,  that  Hanni- 
bal alone,  with  little  help  from  Carthage,  had  continued  the  M'ar 
in  Italy.  But  there  was  now  arrived  another  son  of  Amilear, 
and  one  that,  in  his  present  expedition,  had  seemed  a  man  of 
more  sufficiency  than  Hannibal  himself;  for  whereas,  in  that 
long  and  dangerous  march  thorow  barbarous  nations,  over  great 
rivers,  and  mountains  that  were  thought  unpassable,  Hannibal 
had  lost  a  great  part  of  his  army,  tliis  Asdnibal,  in  the  same 
places,  had  multiplied  his  numbers,  and  gathering  the  peop'^  that 
he  found  in  the  way,  descended  from  the  Alps  like  a  rowling 
snow-ball,  far  greater  than  he  came  over  the  Pyrenees  at  his  first 
setting  out  of  Spain.  These  considerations  and  the  like,  of  wliich 
fear  presented  many  unto  them,  caused  the  people  oi'  Rome  to 
wait  upon  their  consuls  out  of  the  town,  like  a  pensive  train  of 
mourners,  thinking  upon  Marcellus  and  Crispinus,  upon  wliora, 
in  the  like  sort,  th^y  had  given  attendance  tlie  last  year,  but  saw 
neither  of  them  return  alive  Irom  a  less  dangerous  war.  Partic- 
ularlv  old  Gt  Fabius  gave  his  accustomed  advice  to  M    l.(iviua 


12  BATTLE     OF     T  H  K     M  E  T  A  U  R  U  S 

tnat  hd  should  abstain  from  giving  or  taking  battle  until  he  wet 
understood  the  enemies  condition.  But  the  consul  made  him  a 
froward  answer,  and  said  that  he  would  fight  the  very  first  day 
for  that  he  thought  it  long  till  he  should  either  recover  his  honor 
by  victory,  or,  by  seeing  the  overthrow  of  his  own  unjust  citizens, 
satisfie  himself  with  the  joy  of  a  great  though  not  an  honest  re- 
venge.    But  his  meaning  was  better  than  his  words."* 

Hannibal  at  this  period  occupied  with  his  veteran  but  much- 
reduced  forces  the  extreme  south  of  Italy.     It  had  not  been  ex- 
pected either  by  friend  or  foe  that  Hasdrubal  would  eflect  his 
passage  of  the  Alps  so  early  in  the  year  as  actually  occurred. 
And  even  when  Hannibal  learned  that  his  brother  was  in  Italy, 
and  had  advanced  as  far  as  Placentia,  he  was  obliged  to  pause 
for  further  intelligence  before  he  himself  commenced  active  opera- 
tions, as  he  could  not  tell  whether  his  brother  might  not  be  in- 
vited into  Etruria,  to  aid  the  party  there  that  was  disaffected  to 
Rome,  or  whether  he  would  man-ch  down  by  the  Adriatic  Sea. 
Hannibal  led  his  troops  out  of  their  winter  quarters  in  Bruttium, 
and  marched  northward  as  far  as  Canusium.      Nero  had  his  head 
quarters  near  Venusia,  with  an  army  which  he  had  increased  to 
forty  thousand  foot  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  horse,  by  in- 
corporating under  his  own  command  some  of  the  legions  which 
had  been  intended  to  act  ruider  other  generals  in  the  south.     There 
was  another  Roman  ai-my,  twenty  thousand  strong,  south  of  Han- 
nibal, at  Tarcntum.     The  strength  of  that  city  secured  this  Ro- 
man force  from  any  attack  by  Hannibal,  and  it  was  a  serious 
matter  to  march  northward  and  leave  it  in  his  rear,  free  to  act 
against  all  his  depots  and  allies  in  the  friendly  part  of  Italy,  which 
for  the  tv/o  or  three  last  campaigns  had  served  him  for  a  base 
of  his   operations.      Moreover,  Nero's  army  was  so  strong  that 
Hannibal  could  not  concentrate  troops  enough  to  assume  the  of- 
fensive against  it  without  weakening  his  garrisons,  and  relinquish- 
ing, at  least  for  a  time,  his  grasp  upon  the  southern  provinces. 
To  do  this  before  he  Wjis  certainly  informed  of  his  brother's  oper 
ations  would  have  been  a  useless  sacrifice,  as  Nero  could  retreat 
bcfort  him  upon  the  other  Roman  armies  near  the  capital,  and 
Hannibal  knew  by  experience  that  a  mere  advance  of  his  army 
upon  the  walls  of  Rome  would  have  no  effect  on  the  fortunes  of 
the  "war.     In  the  hope,  probably,  of  inducing  Nere  to  foUow  him. 
»  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     METAURUS.  il3 

and  of  f^aining  an  opportunity  of  outmaneuvering  the  Roman  con- 
sul and  attacking  him  on  his  march,  Hannibal  moA'^ed  into  Lu- 
saiiia,  and  then  back  into  Apulia  ;  he  agnin  marched  down  inta 
Bruttium,  and  strengthened  his  army  by  a  levy  of  recruits  in  tliat 
district.  Nero  followed  him,  but  gave  him  no  chance  of  assail- 
ing him  at  a  disadvantage.  Some  partial  encounters  seem  to 
have  taken  place  ;  but  the  consul  cou.d  not  prevent  Ilannibal's 
junction  with  his  Bruttian  levies,  nor  could  Hannibal  gain  an  op- 
portunity of  surprising  and  crushing  the  consul.*  Hannibal  re- 
turned to  his  former  head-quarters  at  Canusium,  and  halted  there 
in  expectation  of  further  tidings  of  his  brother's  movements. 
Nero  also  resumed  his  former  position  in  observation  of  the 
Carthaginian  army. 

Meanwhile,  Hasdrubal  had  raised  the  siege  of  Placentia,  and 
was  advancing  toward  Ariminum  on  the  Adriatic,  and  driving 
oefore  him  the  Roman  army  under  Porcius.  Nor  when  the  con- 
sul Livius  had  come  up,  and  united  the  second  and  third  armies 
of  the  north,  could  he  make  head  against  the  invaders.  The. 
Romans  still  fell  back  before  Hasdrubal,  beyond  Ariminum,  be- 
yond the  Metaurus,  and  as  far  as  the  little  town  of  Sena,  to  the 
southeast  of  that  river.  Hasdrubal  was  not  unmindful  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  acting  in  concert  with  his  brother.  He  sent  messen- 
gers to  Hannibal  to  announce  his  own  line  of  march,  and  to  pro- 

*  The  annalists  wlidm  Livy  copied  spoke  of  Nero's  gaining  repeated 
victories  over  Hannibal,  and  killing  and  taking  his  men  by  tens  of  thon- 
sands.  The  falsehood  of  all  this  is  selfevident.  If  Nero  could  thus  al- 
ways beat  Hannibal,  the  Romans  would  not  have  been  in  such  an  agony 
of  dread  about  Hasdrubal  as  ail  writers  describe.  Indeed,  we  have  the 
express  testimony  of  Pidybius  that  the  statements  which  we  read  in  I, ivy 
of  Marccllus,  Nero,  and  others  gaining  victories  over  Hannibal  in  Italy, 
must  be  all  fsibrioations  of  Roman  vanity.  Polybius  states,  lib.  xv.,  sec. 
16,  that  Hannibal  was  never  defeated  before  the  battle  of  Zama  ;  and  in 
anoiliei  passage,  book  ix.,  chap.  3,  he  mentions  that  after  the  defeats  winch 
Hannibal  inflicted  on  the  Romans  in  the  early  years  of  the  war,  they  no 
longer  dared  face  his  army  in  a  pitched  battle  on  a  fair  field,  and  yet  they 
resolutely  maintained  the  war.  He  rigiitly  explains  this  by  referrinj^  tti 
the  superiority  of  Hannibal's  cavalry,  the  arm  which  gained  him  all  hia 
victories.  By  keeping  within  fortified  lines,  or  close  to  the  sides  of  the 
niouruains  when  Hannibal  approached  them,  the  Romans  rendered  his  cav- 
alry inefTeclive;  and  a  glance  at  the  geography  of  Italy  will  show  how  aii 
army  can  traverse  the  greater  pert  of  that  country  without  venfiring  fat 
from  the  high  grounds. 


/14  BATTLE  OF  THE  METAURl^S. 

pose  that  they  should  unite  their, armies  in  South  Unihiia  and 
then  wheel  round  ajjainst  Romef  Those  messengers  traversed 
the  greater  part  of  Italy  in  safety,  but,  when  close  to  the  object 
of  their  mission,  were  captured  by  a  Roman  detachment ;  and 
Hasdrubal's  letter,  detailing  his  whole  plan  of  the  campaign,  was 
laid,  not  in  his  brother's  hands,  but  in  those  of  the  commander 
of  the  Roman  armies  of  the  south.  Nero  saw  at  once  the  full 
importance  of  the  crisis.  The  two  sons  of  Hamilcar  were  now 
within  two  hundred  miles  of  each  other,  and  if  Rome  were  to  be 
saved,  the  brothers  must  never  meet  alive.  Nero  instantly  or- 
dered seven  thousand  picked  men,  a  thousand  being  cavalr}',  to 
hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  a  secret  expedition  against  one 
of  Hannibal's  garrisons,  and  as  soon  as  night  had  set  in,  he  hur- 
ried forward  on  his  bold  enterprise  ;  but  he  quickly  left  the  south- 
ern road  toward  Lucania,  and,  wheeling  round,  pressed  north- 
ward with  the  utmost  rapidity  toward  Picenum.  He  had,  dur- 
ing the  preceding  afternoon,  sent  messengers  to  Rome,  who  were 
to  lay  Hasdrubal's  letters  before  the  senate.  There  was  a  law 
forbidding  a  consul  to  make  war  or  march  his  army  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  province  assigned  to  him  ;  but  in  such  an  emergency, 
Nero  did  not  wait  for  the  permission  of  the  senate  to  execute  his 
project,  but  informed  them  that  he  was  already  on  his  march  to 
join  Livius  against  Hasdrubal.  He  advised  them  to  send  the 
two  legions  Avhich  formed  the  home  garrison  on  to  Narnia,  so  as 
to  defend  that  pass  of  the  Fiaminian  road  against  Hasdrubal,  in 
case  he  should  march  upon  Rome  before  the  consular  armies  could 
attack  him.  They  were  to  supply  the  place  of  these  two  legions 
at  Rome  by  a  levy  en  masse  in  the  city,  and  by  ordering  up  the 
reserve  legion  from  Capua.  These  M'^ere  his  communications  to 
the  senate.  He  also  sent  horsemen  forward  along  his  line  of 
march,  with  orders  to  the  local  authorities  to  bring  stores  of  pro- 
visions and  refreshment  of  every  kind  to  the  road-side,  and  to 
have  relays  of  carriages  ready  for  the  conveyance  of  the  wearied 
soldiers.  Such  were  the  precautions  which  he  took  for  acceler- 
ating his  march  ;  and  when  he  had  advanced  some  little  distance 
from  his  camp,  he  briefly  informed  his  soldiers  of  the  real  object 
of  their  expedition.  He  told  them  that  never  was  ther?  a  de- 
sign more  seemingly  audacious  and  more  really  safe.  He  said 
he  was  leading  thum  to  a  certain  victory,  for  his  colleague  had 
an  army  large  enough  to  balance  the  enemy  already,  so  that  tkcii 


BATTLE  OF  THE  METAURU3  113 

Bwords  would  decisively  turn  the  scale.  The  very  rumor  that  a 
iVesli  cons'il  and  a  fresh  army  had  come  up,  when  heard  on  tlio 
baltL'-fic'ld  (and  lie  would  take  cave  that  they  should  not  be  heard 
of  before  they  were  seen  and  felt),  would  settle  the  business. 
Tiiey  Avould  have  all  the  credit  of  the  victory,  and  of  having 
dealt  the  final  decisive  blow.  He  appealed  to  the  enthusiastic 
reception  which  they  already  met  with  on  their  line  of  march  a.'3 
a  proof  and  an  omen  of  their  good  fortune.*  And,  indeed,  tlicir 
whole  path  was  amid  the  vows,  and  prayers,  and  praises  of  their 
rountrymen  The  entire  population  of  the  districts  through 
which  they  passed  flocked  to  the  road-side  to  see  and  bless  the 
deliverers  of  their  country.  Food,  drink,  and  refreshments  of 
every  kind  were  eagerly  pressed  on  their  acceptance.  Each  peas- 
ant thought  a  favor  was  conferred  on  him  if  one  of  Nero's  chosen 
band  would  accept  aught  at  his  hands.  The  soldiers  caught  the 
full  spirit  of  their  leader.  Night  and  day  they  marched  for- 
ward, taking  their  hurried  meals  in  the  ranks,  and  resting  by  re- 
lays in  the  wagons  which  the  zeal  of  the  country  people  provid- 
ed, and  which  followed  in  the  rear  of  the  column. 

Meanwhile,  at  Rome,  the  news  of  Nero's  expedition  had 
caused  the  greatest  excitement  and  alarm.  All  men  felt  the 
full  audacity  of  the  enterprise,  but  hesitated  what  epithet  to  ap- 
ply to  it.  It  was  evident  that  Nero's  conduct  would  be  judged 
of  by  the  event,  that  most  unfair  criterion,  as  the  Roman  histo- 
rian truly  terms  it.f  People  reasoned  on  the  perilous  state  in 
which  Nero  had  lt;ft  the  rest  of  his  army,  without  a  general,  and 
deprived  of  the  core  of  its  strength,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  terrible 
flannibal.  They  speculated  on  how  long  it  would  take  Hanni- 
bal to  purfue  and  overtake  Nero  him.self,  and  his  expeditionary 
force.  They  talked  over  the  former  disasters  of  the  war,  and  tlu 
fall  of  both  the  consuls  of  the  last  year.  All  these  calamities 
had  come  on  them  v/hile  they  had  only  one  Carthaginian  gen- 
eral and  army  to  deal  with  in  Italy.  Now  they  had  two  Punic 
wars  at  a  time.  They  had  two  Carthaginian  armies,  they  had 
almost  two  Hannibals  in  Italy.  Hasdnibal  was  sprung  i'roin  the 
game  father  ;  trained  up  in  the  same  hostility  to  Rome  ;  equally 
practiced  in  battle  against  their  legiona  ;   and,  if  the  comparative 

*  l.ivy,  hb.  xxvii  ,  c.  45. 

t  "  Adparebal  duo  nihil  iniquius  est)  ex  eventu  famam  habitiruin."— 
Livv,  hb.  xxvii ,  c.  44. 


lib  BATTLE     OF     THE     METAURUSs. 

speed  and  success  with  which  he  had  crossed  the  A.lps  was  a  lau 
test,  he  was  even  a  better  general  than  his  brother.  With  fear 
for  their  interpreter  of  every  rumor,  they  exaggerated  the  strength 
of  th?ir  enemy's  forces  in  every  quarter,  and  criticised  and  dis 
trusted  their  own. 

Fortunately  for  Rome,  while  she  was  thus  a  f  r'^y  to  terror 
and  anxiety,  her  consul's  nerves  were  stout  and  strong,  and  he 
resolutely  urged  on  his  march  toward  Sena,  where  his  colleague 
liivius  and  the  pi'setor  Porcius  were  encamped,  Hasdrubal's  array 
being  in  position  about  half  a  mile  to  their  north.  Nero  had  sent 
couriers  forward  to  apprise  his  colleague  of  his  project  and  of  his 
approach  ;  and  by  the  advice  of  Livius,  Nero  so  timed  his  final 
march  as  to  reach  the  camp  at  Sena  by  night.  According  to  a 
previous  arrangement,  Nero's  men  were  received  silently  into  the 
tents  of  their  comrades,  each  according  to  his  rank.  By  these 
means  there  was  no  enlargement  of  the  camp  that  could  betr/.y 
to  Hasdrubal  the  accession  of  force  which  the  Romans  had  re- 
ceived. This  was  considerable,  as  Nero's  rmmbers  had  been  in- 
creased on  the  march  by  the  volunteers,  who  ofiered  themselves 
in  crowds,  and  from  whom  he  selected  the  most  promising  men, 
and  especially  the  veterans  of  former  campaigns.  A  council  of 
war  was  held  on  the  morning  after  his  arrival,  in  which  some 
advised  that  time  should  be  given  for  Nero's  men  to  refresh  them 
selves  after  the  fatigue  of  such  a  march.  But  Nero  vehemently 
opposed  all  delay.  "The  officer,"  said  he,  "who  is  for  giviii"' 
time  to  my  men  here  to  rest  themselves,  is  for  giving  time  to 
Hannibal  to  attack  my  men,  whom  I  have  left  in  the  camp  i?, 
Apulia.  He  is  for  giving  time  to  Hannibal  and  Hasdrubal  to  dis 
cover  my  march,  and  to  maneuver  for  a  junction  with  each  othei 
in  Cisalpine  Gaul  at  their  leisure.  We  must  fight  instantly, 
while  both  the  foe  here  and  the  foe  in  the  south  are  ignorant  of 
our  movements.  We  must  destroy  this  Hasdrubal,  and  1  must  be 
back  in  Apulia  before  Hannibal  awakes  from  his  torpor."*  Ne- 
ro's ad\ice  prevailed.  It  was  resolved  to  fight  directly,  and  be- 
fore the  consuls  and  praitor  left  the  tent  of  Livius,  the  red  cn- 
sigfa,  which  wfis  the  signal  to  projjare  ibr  immediate  action.,  wai 
lioisted,  and  the  Romans  forthwitli  drew  up  in  battle  array  out' 
side  the  camp. 

Hasdrubal  had  beer,  anxious  to  bring  Livius  and  Porcius  to  bat 
*  Livy,  lib.  xxvii ,  c.  46. 


BATTLE  OF  THE  METAURUS  117 

tie,  though  he  had  not  jiidoed  it  expedient  to  attack  theiu  in  their 
lines.  And  now,  on  hearing  that  the  Romans  ofl'ered  battle,  he 
also  drew  np  his  men,  and  advanced  toAvard  them.  No  spy  or 
ieserter  had  intormed  him  oi'  Nero's  arrival,  nor  had  he  received 
any  direct  information  that  he  had  more  than  his  old  enemies  to 
deal  with.  But  as  he  rode  forward  to  reconnoiter  the  Roman 
line,  he  thought  that  their  numbers  seemed  to  have  increased,  and 
that  the  armor  of  some  of  them  was  unusually  dull  and  stained. 
He  noticed,  also,  that  the  horses  of  some  of  the  cavalry  appear- 
ed to  be  rough  and  out  of  condition,  as  if  they  had  just  come  from 
a  succession  of  forced  marches.  So  also,  though,  owing  to  the 
precaution  of  Livius,  the  Roman  camp  showed  no  change  of  size, 
it  had  not  escaped  the  quick  ear  of  the  Carthaginian  general  that 
the  trumpet  which  gave  the  signal  to  the  Roman  legions  sounded 
that  morning  once  oftener  than  usual,  as  if  directing  the  troops 
of  some  additional  superior  officer.  Hasdrubal,  from  his  Span- 
ish campaigns,  was  well  acquainted  with  all  the  sounds  and  sig- 
nals of  Roman  war,  and  from  all  that  he  heard  and  saw,  he  felt 
convinced  that  both  the  Roman  consuls  were  before  him.  In 
doubt  and  difficulty  as  to  what  might  have  taken  place  between 
the  armies  of  the  south,  and  probably  hoping  that  Hannibal  also 
Avas  approaching,  Hasdrubal  determined  to  avoid  an  encounter 
with  the  combined  Roman  forces,  and  to  endeavor  to  retreat  upon 
Insubrian  Gaul,  where  he  would  be  in  a  friendly  country,  and 
could  endeavor  to  re-open  his  communication  with  his  brother. 
He  therefore  led  liis  troops  back  into  their  camp  ;  and  as  the 
Romans  did  not  venture  on  an  assault  upon  his  intrenchments, 
and  Hasdrubal  did  not  choose  to  commence  his  retreat  in  their 
Right,  the  day  passed  away  in  inaction.  At  the  first  Avatch  of 
the  night,  Hasdrubal  led  his  men  silently  out  of  their  camp,  and 
moved  northward  toward  the  Metaurus,  in  the  hope  of  placing 
that  river  between  himself  and  the  Romans  before  his  retreat 
Avas  discovered.  His  guides  betrayed  him ;  and  having  purposely 
led  nim  aAvay  from  the  part  of  the  riA'-er  that  was  fordable,  they 
made,  their  escape  in  the  dark,  and  leit  Hasdrubal  and  his  army 
wandering  in  confusion  along  the  steep  bank,  and  seeking  in  vain 
for  a  spot  Avhere  the  stream  could  be  safely  crossed.  At  last 
thoy  halted  ;  and  when  day  dawned  on  them,  Hasdrubal  found 
rhat  great  numbers  of  his  men,  in  their  fatigue  and  impatience, 
had  lost  all  discipline  and  subordination,  and  that  many  of  hi* 


lis  BATTLEOF  THE  METAURUS. 

(i-allic  auxiliaries  had  got  drunk,  and  were  lying  helpless  in  then 
quarters.  The  Roman  cavalry  was  soon  seen  coming  up  in  pur 
suit,  followed  at  no  great  distance  by  the  legions,  which  march- 
ed in  readiness  for  an  instant  engagement.  It  was  hopeless  for 
Hasdrubal  to  think  of  continuing  his  retreat  before  them.  The 
prospect  of  immediate  battle  might  recall  the  disordered  part  ol 
his  troops  to  a  sense  of  duty,  and  revive  the  instinct  of  discipline 
He  therefore  ordered  his  men  to  prepare  for  action  instantly,  and 
made  the  best  arrangement  of  them  that  the  nature  of  the  ground 
vould  permit. 

Heeren  has  well  described  the  general  appearance  of  a  Cartha- 
ginian army.  He  says,  "It  was  an  assemblage  of  the  most  op 
posite  races  of  the  human  species  from  the  farthest  parts  of  the 
globe.  Hordes  of  half-naked  Gauls  were  ranged  next  to  com 
panies  of  white-clothed  Iberians,  and  savage  Ligurians  next  to 
the  far-traveled  Nasamones  and  Lotophagi.  Carthaginians  and 
Phoinici- Africans  formed  the  centre,  while  innumerable  troops  of 
Numidian  horsemen,  taken  from  all  the  tribes  of  the  Desert, 
swarmed  about  on  unsaddled  horses,  and  formed  the  wings  ;  the 
van  was  composed  of  Balearic  slingers  ;  and  a  line  of  colossal 
elephants,  with  their  Ethiopian  guides,  formed,  as  it  were,  a  chain 
of  moving  fortresses  before  the  whole  army."  Such  were  the 
usual  materials  and  arrangements  of  the  hosts  that  fought  for 
Carthage  ;  but  the  troops  under  Hasdrubal  were  not  in  all  re- 
spects thus  constituted  or  thus  stationed.  He  seems  to  have  been 
especially  deficient  in  cavalry,  and  he  had  few  African  troops, 
though  some  Carthaginians  of  high  rank  were  with  him.  His 
veteran  Spanish  infantry,  armed  with  helmets  and  shields,  and 
short  cut-aud-thrust  swords,  were  the  best  part  of  his  army 
These,  and  his  few  Africans,  he  drew  up  on  his  right  wing,  under 
his  own  personal  command.  In  the  centre  he  placed  his  Ligu- 
rian  infantry,  and  on  the  left  wing  he  placed  or  retained  the 
Gauls,  who  were  armed  with  long  javelins  and  with  huge  broad- 
swords and  targets.  The  rugged  nature  of  the  ground  in  front 
and  on  the  flank  of  this  part  of  his  line  made  him  hope  that  th* 
Roman  right  wing  would  be  unable  to  come  to  close  qiiaiters 
with  these  unserviceable  barbarians  before  he  could  malio  some 
iuii)ression  with  his  Spanish  veterans  on  the  Roman  left  This 
was  the  only  chance  that  he  had  of  victory  or  safciy,  and  he 
Bcems  to  have  done  every  thing  that  good  generalship  could  dc 


BATTLE     OF     THE     METAURU8.  IIS 

to  secure  it.  He  placed  his  elephants  in  advance  of  his  centre 
and  right  winja^.  He  had  caused  the  driver  of  each  of  them  to 
be  provided  with  a  sliarp  iron  spike  and  a  mallet,  and  had  given 
orders  that  every  beast  that  became  unmanageable,  and  ran  ba(rk 
upon  his  own  ranks,  should  be  instantly  killed,  by  driving  the 
spike  into  the  vertebra  at  the  junction  of  the  head  and  the  spine. 
Hasdrubal's  elephants  were  ten  in  number.  "We  have  no  trust- 
worthy information  as  to  the  imount  of  his  infantry,  but  it  is 
quite  clear  that  he  Avas  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  combined 
Roman  forces. 

The  tactic  of  the  Roman  legions  had  not  yet  acquired  thai 
perfection  which  it  received  from  the  military  genius  of  Marius,* 
and  which  we  read  of  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gibbon.  We  pos- 
sess, in  that  great  work,  an  account  of  the  Roman  legions  at  the 
end  of  the  commonwealth,  and  during  the  early  ages  of  the  em- 
pire, which  those  alone  can  adequately  admire  who  have  attempt- 
ed a  similar  description.  We  have  also,  in  the  sixth  and  seven- 
teenth books  of  Polybius,  an  elaborate  discussion  on  the  military 
system  of  the  Romans  in  his  time,  which  was  not  far  distant 
I'rom  the  time  of  the  battle  of  the  Metaurus.  But  the  subject  is 
beset  Avith  difficulties  ;  and  instead  of  entering  into  minute  but 
inconclusive  details,  I  would  refer  to  Gibbon's  first  chapter  as 
serving  for  a  general  description  of  the  Roman  army  in  its  period 
of  perfection,  and  remark,  that  the  training  and  armor  which  the 
whole  legion  received  in  the  time  of  Augustus  was,  two  centuries 
earlier,  only  partially  introduced.  Two  divisions  of  troops,  called 
Hastati  and  Principes,  formed  the  bulk  of  each  Roman  legion  in 
the  Second  Punic  war.  Each  of  these  divisions  was  twelve  hun- 
dred strong.  The  Hastatus  and  the  Princeps  legionary  bore  a 
breast-plate  or  coat  of  mail,  brazen  greaves,  and  a  brazen  helmet, 
with  a  lofty  upright  crest  of  scarlet  or  black  feathers.  He  had 
a  large  oblons  shield  ;  and,  as  weapons  of  offense,  two  javelins, 
one  of  which  was  light  and  slender,  hut  the  other  was  a  strong 
and  massive  Mcapon,  with  a  shaft  about  four  feet  long,  and  an 
uon  head  of  equal  length.  The  sword  was  carried  on  the  right 
thigh,  and  was  a  short  cut-and-thrust  weapon,  like  that  which 
was  used  by  the  Spaniards.     Thus  arnred,  the  Hastati  formed 

*  Most  probably  durin<j  the  period  of  his  prolonged  consulship,  from 
B.C.  104  to  B.C.  101,  while  he  was  training  his  army  against  the  (/ioDtHl 
sod  the  Teutons. 


120  BATTLE     OF     THE     METAURTT*. 

the  front  division  of  the  legion,  and  the  Principes  the  second 
Each  division  was  drawn  up  about  ten  deep,  a  space  of  three  lisei 
being  allowed  between  the  files  as  well  as  the  ranks,  so  as  to 
give  each  legionary  ample  room  for  the  use  of  his  javelins,  ant 
of  his  sword  and  shield.  The  men  in  the  second  rank  did  not 
Btand  immediately  behind  those  in  the  first  rank,  but  the  file? 
were  alternate,  like  the  position  of  the  men  on  a  draught-board 
This  was  termed  the  quincunx  order.  Niebuhr  considers  that 
this  arrangement  enabled  the  legion  to  keep  up  a  shower  of  jave 
Uns  on  the  enemy  for  some  considerable  time.  He  says,  "  When 
the  first  line  had  hurled  its  pila,  it  probably  stepped  back  be- 
tween those  who  stood  behind  it,  and  two  steps  forward  restored 
the  front  nearly  to  its  first  position  ;  a  movement  which,  on  ac- 
count of  the  arrangement  of  the  quincunx,  could  be  executed 
without  losing  a  monjent.  Thus  one  line  succeeded  the  other  in 
the  front  till  it  was  time  to  draw  the  swords ;  nay,  when  it  was 
found  expedient,  the  lines  which  had  already  been  in  the  front 
might  repeat  this  change,  since  the  stores  of  pila  were  surely 
not  confined  to  the  two  which  each  soldier  took  with  him  into 
battle. 

"  The  same  change  must  have  taken  place  in  fighting  with  the 
sword,  which,  when  the  same  tactic  was  adopted  on  both  sides, 
was  any  thing  but  a  confused  'nielee  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  a 
series  of  single  combats."  He  adds,  that  a  military  man  of  ex- 
perience had  been  consulted  by  him  on  the  subject,  and  had 
given  it  as  his  opinion  "  that  the  change  of  the  lines  as  described 
above  was  by  no  means  impracticable  ;  but,  in  the  absence  of 
the  deafening  noise  of  gunpowder,  it  can  not  have  had  even  any 
difficulty  with  well-trained  troops." 

The  third  division  of  the  legion  was  six  hundred  strong,  and 
acted  as  a  reserve.  It  was  always  composed  of  veteran  soldiers, 
who  wer3  called  the  Triarii.  Their  arms  were  the  same  as  those 
of  the  P  incipes  and  Hastati,  except  that  each  Triarian  carried 
a  spear  nistead  of  javelins.  The  rest  of  the  legion  consisted  of 
light-armed  troops,  who  acted  as  skirmishers.  The  cavalry  of 
each  legion  was  at  this  period  about  three  hundred  strong.  The 
Italian  allies,  who  were  attached  to  the  legion,  seem  to  have  been 
similarly  armed  and  equipped,  but  their  numerical  proportiou  of 
cavalry  was  much  larger. 

Such  was  the  nature  of  the  forces  that  advanced  on  the  Rl^ 


BATTLE     OF     TUE     METAURUS.  121 

man  side  to  tlie  battle  of  the  Metaurus.  Nero  commanded  the 
right  wing,  Livius  the  left,  and  the  praitor  Porcius  had  the  com- 
mand of  the  centre.  "  Both  Romans  and  Carthaginians  well  un- 
ufrstood  how  much  depended  upon  the  fortune  of  this  day,  anfl 
how  little  hope  of  safety  there  was  for  the  vanquished.  Only 
the  Romans  herein  seemed  to  have  had  the  better  iii  conceit  and 
o])inion  that  they  were  to  fijrht  with  men  desirous  to  have  fled 
irorn  them ;  and  according  to  this  presumption  came  Livius  the 
consul,  with  a  proud  bravery,  to  give  charge  on  the  Spaniards 
and  Africans,  by  whom  he  was  so  sharply  entertained  that  the 
\nctory  seemed  very  doubtful.  The  Africans  and  Spaniards  were 
stout  soldiers,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  manner  of  the  Ro- 
man fight.  The  Ligurians,  also,  were  a  hardy  nation,  and  not 
accustomed  to  giA^e  ground,  which  they  needei  the  less,  or  were 
able  now  to  do,  being  placed  in  the  midsi.  Livius,  therefore, 
and  Porcius  found  great  opposition  ;  and  with  great  slaughter  on 
both  sides  prevailed  little  or  nothing.  Besides  other  difficulties, 
they  were  exceedingly  troubled  by  the  elephants,  that  brake 
their  first  ranks,  and  put  them  in  such  disorder  as  the  Roman 
ensigns  -were  driven  to  fall  back  ;  all  this  while  Claudius  Nero, 
laboring  in  vain  against  a  steep  hill,  was  unable  to  come  to  blows 
with  the  Gauls  that  stood  opposite  him,  but  out  of  danger.  This 
made  Hasdrubal  the  more  confident,  who,  seeing  his  own  left 
wing  safe,  did  the  more  boldly  and  fiercely  make  impression  on 
the  other  side  upon  the  left  wing  of  the  Romans."* 

But  at  last  Nero,  who  found  that  Hasdrubal  refused  his  left 
wing,  and  who  could  not  overcome  the  difficulties  of  the  ground 
in  the  quarter  assigned  to  him,  decided  the  battle  by  another 
stroke  of  that  militaiy  genius  which  had  inspired  his  march 
Wheeling  a  brigade  of  his  best  men  round  the  rear  of  the  rest  of 
tlie  Roman  army,  Nero  fiercely  charged  the  flank  of  the  Span 
iards  and  Africans.  The  charge  was  as  successful  as  it  was 
sudden.  Rolled  back  in  disorder  upon  each  other,  and  ov.r- 
whelmed  by  numbers,  the  Spaniards  and  Ligurians  died,  fighting 
gallantly  to  the  last.  The  Gauls,  who  had  taken  little  or  no 
part  in  the  strife  of  the  day,  were  then  surrounded,  and  butchered 
almost  without  resistance.  Hasdrubal,  after  having,  by  the  con- 
fc.^siou  ot  his  enemies,  done  al  that  a  general  could  do,  when  he 
«a\v  that  the  victory  was  irreparably  lost,  scorning  to  survive  llir 
•  "  Histdrie  of  the  World,"  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  p.  946. 

F 


122  BATILE  OF  THE  METAUKUS. 

gallant  host  which  he  had  led,  and  to  gratify,  as  a  capii^i,  Ro 
man  cruelty  and  pride,  spurred  his  horse  into  the  midst  of  a  Ro- 
man cohort,  and,  sword  in  hand,  met  the  death  that  was  worthy 
of  the  son  of  Hamilcar  and  the  brother  of  Hannibal. 

Success  the  most  complete  had  crowned  Nero's  enterprise. 
Returning  as  rapid!}  as  he  had  advanced,  he  was  again  faring 
the  inactive  enemies  in  the  south  before  they  even  knew  of  his 
march.  But  he  brought  with  him  a  ghastly  trophy  of  what  he 
had  done.  In  the  true  spirit  of  that  savage  brutality  which  de- 
formed the  Roman  national  character,  Nero  ordered  Hasdrubale 
head  to  be  flung  into  his  brother's  camp.  Ten  years  had  passed 
snice  Hannibal  had  last  gazed  on  those  features.  The  sons  of 
Hamilcar  had  then  planned  their  system  of  w^arfare  against  Rome, 
which  they  had  so  nearly  brought  to  successful  accomplishment. 
Year  after  year  had  Hannibal  been  struggling  in  Italy,  in  the 
hope  of  one  day  hailing  the  arrival  of  hini  w^hom  he  had  left  in 
Spain,  and  of  seeing  his  brother's  eye  flash  with  affection  and 
pride  at  the  junction  of  their  irresistible  hosts.  He  now  saw 
that  eye  glazed  in  death,  and  in  the  agony  of  his  heart  the  great 
Carthaginian  groaned  aloud  that  he  recognized  his  countiy's  de.**- 
tiny. 

Meanwhile,  at  the  tidings  of  th^  great  battle,  Rome  at  once 
rose  from  the  thrill  of  anxiety  and  terror  to  the  full  confidence 
of  triumph.  Hannibal  might  retain  his  hold  on  Southern  Italy 
for  a  few  years  longer,  but  the  impo»ial  city  and  her  allies  W'ero 
no  longer  in  danger  from  his  arms  ;  and,  after  Hannibal's  down- 
fall, the  great  military  republic  of  t^e  ancient  world  met  in  her 
career  of  conquest  no  other  worthy  ccnpetitor.  Byron  has  term- 
ed Nero's  march  "  unequaled,"  and,  in  the  magnitude  of  its  con- 
sequences, it  is  so.  Viewed  only  as  a  rrilitary  exploit,  it  remains 
unparalleled  save  by  Marlborough's  boH  march  from  Flaiulera 
to  the  Danube  in  the  cam])aign  of  BlenJ^r-im,  and  perhaps  also 
by  the  Archduke  Charles's  lateral  march  "n  1796,  by  which  he 
overwhelmed  the  French  under  Jourdain,  O'ld  then,  diivmg  Mo' 
reau  through  the  Black  Forest  and  across  tb'*  RImm".  ior  u.  whi.t. 
fieod  Germany  from  her  invaderg. 


s\norsisuf    events,  etc.  123 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  the  Meiaurus, 
B.C.  207,  AND  Arrtinius's  Victory  over  the  Roman  Le- 
gions UNDER  Varus,  A.D.  9. 

B.C.  205  to  201.  Scipio  is  made  consul,  and  carries  the  AvaJ 
into  Africa.  He  gains  several  victories  there,  and  the  Cartha- 
ginians recall  Hannibal  from  Italy  to  oppose  him.  Battle  (if 
Zaina  in  201.  Hannibal  is  defeated,  and  Carthage  sues  for 
peace.  End  of  the  second  Punic  war,  leaving  Rome  confirmed 
in  the  dominion  of  Italy,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  and  also 
mistress  of  great  part  of  Spain,  and  virtually  predon\inant  in 
North  Africa. 

200.  Rome  makes  war  upon  Philip,  king  of  Macedonia.  She 
pretends  to  take  the  Greek  cities  of  the  Achaean  league  and  the 
JEtolians  under  her  protection  as  allies.  Philip  is  defeated  by 
the  proconsul  Flamininus  at  Cynoscephalse,  198,  and  begs  for 
peace.  The  Macedonian  influence  is  now  completely  destroyed 
in  Greece,  and  the  Roman  established  in  its  stead,  though  Rome 
pretends  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  Greek  cities. 

194.  Rome  makes  war  upon  Antiochus,  king  of  Syria.  He  is 
completely  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Magnesia,  192,  and  is  glad 
to  accept  peace  on  conditions  which  leave  him  dependent  upon 
Rome. 

200-190.  "Thus,  within  the  short  space  of  ten  years,  waa 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  Roman  authority  in  the  East,  and  t^^e 
general  state  of  affairs  entirely  changed.  If  Rome  was  not  j3t 
the  ruler,  she  was  at  least  the  avbitress  of  the  world  from  tJ^o 
Atlantic  to  the  Euphrates.  The  power  of  tlie  three  principal 
states  was  so  completely  humbled,  that  they  durst  not,  witliout 
the  permission  of  Rome,  begin  any  new  Avar  ;  the  fourth,  Egypt, 
had  already,  in  the  year  201,  placed  herself  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  Rome  ;  and  the  lesser  powers  followed  of  themselves,  es- 
teeming it  an  honor  to  be  called  the  allies  of  Rome.  W^itli  thia 
name  the  nations  were  lulled  into  security,  and  brought  under 
the  Roman  yoke  ;  the  new  political  system  of  Rome  was  found- 
od  and  strengthened,  partly  by  exciting  and  supporting  the  weak- 
er states  against  the  stronger,  however  unjust  the  cause  of  the 
former  might  be,  and  partly  by  factions  which  she  found  meaiij 
to  raise  in  cveiy  state,  even  the  smallest." — (Heeren.) 

172.  War  renewed  between  Macedon  and  Rome.     Decisis-* 


124  SYNOPSIS     OF     EVENTS     AFTFR     THE 

defeat  of  Perses,  the  Macedonian  king,  by  Paulus  JEnrdius  at 
Pydna,  168,     Destruction  of  the  Macedonian  monarchy. 

150.  Rorne  oppresses  the  Carthaginians  till  they  are  driveu 
to  take  up  arms,  and  the  third  Punic  war  begins.  Carthage  is 
taken  and  destroyed  by  Scipio  ^milianus,  146,  and  the  Cartha- 
ginian territory  is  made  a  Roman  province. 

146  In  the  same  year  in  which  Carthage  falls,  Corinth  is 
•tormed  by  the  Roman  army  under  Mummius.  The  Achfe^in 
league  had  been  goaded  into  hostilities  with  Rome  by  means 
similar  to  those  employed  against  Carthage.  The  greater  part 
of  Southern  Greece  is  made  a  Roman  province  under  the  name 
of  vVchaia. 

133.  JSTumantium  is  destroyed  by  Scipio  JEmilianus.  "  The 
war  against  the  Spaniards,  who,  of  all  the  nations  subdued  by 
the  Romans,  defended  their  liberty  with  the  greatest  obstinacy, 
began  in  the  year  200,  six  years  after  the  total  expulsion  of  the 
Carthaginians  from  their  country,  206.  It  was  exceedingly  ob- 
stinate, partly  from  the  natural  state  of  the  country,  which  was 
thickly  populated,  and  where  every  place  became  a  fortress  ; 
partly  from  the  courage  of  the  inhabitants  ;  but  above  all,  owing 
to  the  peculiar  policy  of  the  Romans,  Avho  were  wont  to  employ 
their  alliea  to  subdue  other  nations.  This  war  continued,  almost 
without  interruption,  from  the  year  200  to  133,  and  was  for  the 
most  part  carried  on  at  the  same  time  in  Hispania  Citerior, 
where  the  Celtiberi  were  the  most  formidable  adversaries,  and 
in  H.ispani'i  Ulterior,  where  the  Lusitani  were  equally  powerful. 
Hostilities  were  at  the  highest  pitch  in  195,  under  Cato,  who  re- 
duced Hi.'p-ania  Citerior  to  a  state  of  tranquillity  in  185-179, 
when  the  Celtiberi  were  attacked  in  their  native  territory ;  and 
155-150,  when  the  Romans  in  both  provinces  were  so  often  beat 
en,  that  nothing  was  more  dreaded  by  the  soldiers  at  home  than 
to  be  [iCHt  there.  The  extortions  and  perfidy  of  Servius  Galb 
placeil  VivJathus,  in  the  year  146,  at  the  head  of  his  nation,  the 
Lub.tani  :  the  war,  however,  soon  extended  itself  to  Hispania 
Ci/mor,  where  many  nations,  particularly  the  Numantincs,  took" 
up  ar»r)e  against  Rome,  143.  Viriathus,  sometimes  victoriou:! 
au'..  Po<cA«'tm\es  defeated,  was  never  more  formidable  than  in  the 
nKU'T'jit  of  defeat,  be;;au.se  he  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of 
hi.«  knowledge  of  the  country  and  of  the  dispositions  of  his  coun^ 
hymen.     After  his  murder,  caused  by  the  treachery  of  Ceepio, 


BATTLE     OF     THE     M  E  T  A  U  R  U  S.  I'J-J 

.40,  I/usitania  was  subdued  ;  but  the  Numantine  war  become 
ttill  more  violent,  and  the  Numautines  compelled  the  consul 
Maucinua  to  a  disadvantageous  treaty,  137.  When  Scipio,  in 
the  year  133,  put  an  end  to  this  war,  Spain  was  certainly  tran- 
quil ;  the  northern  parts,  however,  were  stiJl  unsubdued,  tiiongh 
the  Romans  penetrated  as  far  as  Galatia." — (Heeren.) 

134.  Commencement  of  the  revolutionary  century  at  Eomc, 
i.  c,  from  the  time  of  the  excitement  produced  by  the  attempts 
made  by  the  Gracchi  to  reform  the  commonwealth,  to  the  bat- 
tle of  iVctium  (B.C.  31),  which  established  Octavianus  Caesar  as 
Bole  master  of  the  Roman  world.  Throughout  this  period  Rome 
was  engaged  in  important  foreign  wars,  most  of  which  procured 
large  accessions  to  her  territory. 

118-106.  The  Jugurthine  war.  Numidia  is  conquered,  and 
made  a  Roman  conquest. 

113-101.  The  great  and  terrible  war  of  the  Cimbri  and  Teu- 
tones  against  Rome.  These  nations  of  northern  warriors  .slaugh- 
ter several  Roman  armies  in  Gaul,  and  in  102  attempt  to  pene 
trate  into  Italy.  The  military  genius  of  Marius  here  saves  bis 
country  ;  he  defeats  the  Teutones  near  Ai.K,  in  Provence  ;  and  n 
the  following  year  he  destroys  the  army  of  the  Cimbri,  who  had 
passed  the  Alps,  near  Vercellae. 

91-88.  The  war  of  the  Italian  allies  against  Rome.  This  was 
caused  by  the  refusal  of  Rome  to  concede  to  them  the  rights  of 
Roman  citizenship.  After  a  sanguinary  struggle,  Rome  gradu- 
ally concedes  it. 

89-85.  First  Avar  of  the  Romans  against  Mithradates  the  Great 
king  of  Pontus,  who  had  overrun  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  and 
Greece.  Sylla  defeats  his  armies,  and  forces  him  to  withdraw 
his  forces  from  Europe.  Sylla  returns  to  Rome  to  carry  on  the 
civil  war  against  the  son  and  partisans  of  Marius  lie  makes 
himself  dictator. 

74-64.  The  last  Mithradatic  wars.  Lucullus,  and  after  him 
Pompoius,  command  against  the  great  king  of  Pontus,  v/ho  a1 
ast  is  poisoned  by  his  son,  while  designing  to  raise  the  wail  ike 
lrib<is  of  the  Danube  against  Rome,  and  to  invade  Italy  from  the 
northeast.  Great  Asiatic  conquests  of  the  Romauf".  Besides  ihi; 
ftucient  province  of  Pergainus,  the  maritime  countries  of  Bithvnia 
and  nearly  all  Paphlagonia  and  Pontus,  are  formed  into  a  Ro- 
man provmce  under  the  name  of  Bithynia,  while  ou  the  southern 


l<.t)  SifNOlSlS     OF     EVENTS,    ETC. 

coast  Cilicia  and  Pamphylia  form  another  und/.r  the  name  of 
Cilieia  ;  Phoenicia  and  Syria  compose  a  third,  under  the  name 
of  Syria.  On  the  other  hand,  Great  Armenia  is  left  to  Tigranes ; 
Cappadocia  to  Ariobarzanes  ;  theBosphorusto  Pharnaces  ;  Judaea 
to  Hyrcanus  ;  and  some  other  small  states  are  also  given  to  petty 
princes,  all  of  whom  remain  dependent  on  Rome. 

58-50.  Cfesar  conquers  Gaul. 

54.  Crassus  attacks  the  Parthians  with  a  Roman  army,  but 
DA'erthrown  and  killed  at  CarrhtB  in  Mesopotamia.     His  lieuten- 
ant Cassius  collects  the  "wa-ecks  of  the  army,  and  prevents  the 
Parthians  from  conquering  Syria. 

49—45.  The  civil  war  between  Csesar  and  the  Pompeian  party. 
Egypt,  Mauritania,  and  Pontus  are  involved  in  the  consequences 
of  this  war. 

44.  Caesar  is  killed  in  the  Capitol  ;  the  civil  wars  are  soon 
renewed. 

42.  Death  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  at  Philippi. 

31.  Death  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  Egypt  becomes  a  Ro- 
man ])roviiice,  and  Augustus  Cajsar  is  left  undisputed  m»jiU.t  <rf 
Rome,  and  aii  that  is  Rome's 


▼  ICTORY     OF     ARMINIUS  127 


CHAPTER  V. 

inCTOFY  OF  ARMINIUS  OVER  THE  ROMAN  LEGIONS  UNDER 
VARUS,  A.D.  9. 

Hac  clade  factum,  ut  Imperium  quod  in  litore  oceani  non  steterat,  ui 
itpa  Rtieni  fluminis  staret. — Flobus. 

To  a  truly  illustrious  Frenchman,  whose  reverses  as  a  minis- 
ter can  never  obscure  his  achievements  in  the  world  of  letters, 
we  are  indebted  lor  the  most  profound  and  most  eloquent  estimate 
that  we  possess  of  the  importance  of  the  Germanic  element  in 
European  civilization,  and  of  the  extent  to  which  the  human 
race  is  indebted  to  those  brave  warriors  who  long  were  the  un- 
conquered  antagonists,  and  finally  became  the  conquerors,  of  ini  • 
perial  Rome. 

Twenty-thi'ee  eventful  years  have  passed  away  since  M.  Gui- 
zot  delivered  from  the  chair  of  modern  history  at  Paris  his  course 
of  lectures  on  the  history  of  Civilization  in  Europe.  Durmg  those 
years  the  spirit  of  earnest  inquiry  into  the  germs  and  primary 
developments  of  existing  institutions  has  become  more  and  more 
active  and  universal,  and  the  merited  celebrity  of  M.  Guizot'i 
work  has  proportionally  increased.  Its  admirablij  analysis  of  the 
complex  political  and  social  organizations  of  which  the  modern 
oivilized  world  is  made  up,  must  have  led  thousands  to  trace 
with  keener  interest  the  great  crises  of  times  past,  by  which  the 
characteristics  of  the  present  were  determined.  The  narrative 
of  one  of  these  great  crises,  of  the  epoch  A.D.  9,  Avhen  Germa- 
ny took  up  arms  for  her  independence  against  Roman  invasion, 
has  for  us  this  special  attraction — that  it  forms  part  of  our  own 
national  history.  Had  Arminius  been  supine  or  unsuccessful, 
our  Germanic  ancestors  would  have  been  enslaved  or  extermina 
ted  in  their  original  seats  along  the  Eyder  and  the  Elbe.  Thin 
island  would  never  have  borne  the  name  of  England,  and  "  we, 
Ihis  great  English  nation,  whose  race  and  language  arc  now 
overrunning  the  earth,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,"*  would 
Aave  been  utterly  cut  off"  from  existence. 

•  Arnold's  "  Lec»ures  on  Modern  History." 


'28  VICTORY     OF     ARMINIUS     OVER 

Arnold  may,  indeed,  go  too  far  in  holding  that  we  an?  wholly 
unconnected  in  race  with  the  Romans  and  Britons  who  inhabit- 
ed this  country  before  the  coming  over  of  the  Saxons  ;  that, 
"nationally  speaking,  the  history  of  Cai'sar's  invasion  has  no 
more  to  do  with  us  than  the  natural  history  of  the  animals  which 
then  inhabited  our  forests."  There  seems  ample  evidence  to 
prove  that  the  Romanized  Celts  whom  our  Teutonic  forefathers 
found  here  influenced  materially  the  character  of  our  nation 
But  the  main  stream  of  our  people  was  and  is  Ger.nanic.  Oui 
language  alone  decisively  proves  this.  Arminius  is  fixr  more  truly 
one  of  our  national  heroes  than  Caractacus  ;  and  it  was  our  own 
primeval  fatherland  that  the  brave  German  rescued  when  he 
slaughtered  the  Roman  legions  eighteen  centuries  ago,  in  the 
marshy  glens  between  the  Lippe  and  the  Ems.* 

Dark  and  disheartening,  even  to  heroic  spirits,  must  have  seem 
ed  the  prospects  of  Germany  when  Arminius  planned  the  gen- 
eral rising  of  his  countrymen  against  Rome.  Half  the  land  was 
occupied  by  Roman  gai-risons  ;  and,  what  was  worse,  many  of  the 
Germans  seemed  patiently  acquiescent  in  their  state  of  bondage. 
The  braver  portion,  whose  patriotism  could  be  relied  on,  was  ill 
armed  and  undisciplined,  while  the  enemy's  troops  consisted  of 
veterans  in  the  highest  state  of  equipment  and  training,  familiar- 
ized with  victory,  and  commanded  by  officers  of  proved  skill  and 
valor.  The  resources  of  Rome  seemed  boundless  ;  her  tenacity 
of  purpose  was  believed  to  be  invincible.  There  was  no  hope  of 
foreign  sympathy  or  aid  ;  lor  "  the  self-governing  powers  that  had 
filled  the  Old  World  had  bent  one  after  another  before  the  rising 
power  of  Rome,  and  had  vanished.  The  earth  seemed  left  ■void 
of  independent  nations.! 

The  German  chieftain  knew  Avell  the  gigantic  power  of  the 
oppressor.  Arminius  was  no  rude  savage,  fighting  out  c'"  mere 
animal  instinct,  or  in  ignorance  of  the  might  of  his  adversary. 
He  was  familiar  with  the  Roman  language  and  civilization ;  he 
had  served  m  the  Roman  armies ;  he  had  been  admitted  to  the 
Ronian  citizenship,  and  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  equestrian  or- 
der, It  was  part  of  the  subtle  policy  of  Rome  to  confer  rank  ,u.nd 
privileges  on  the  y^h  of  the  leading  families  in  the  nations 
which   she   wished^  to    enslave.     Among  other  young   German 

•  See  post,  remarks  on  the  relalionsliip  between  tlie  Clicnisci  and  l!i« 
English.  t  llanke 


THE     ROMAN     LEGIONS     U  N  D  E  K     V  A  11  U  S.  I  "i") 

chieftains.  Armiuius  and  his  brother,  who  were  the  heads  of  ;l>e 
noblest  house  in  the  tribe  of  tlie  Clienisci,  had  been  selected  S3 
Ht  objects  lor  the  exereise  ol"  this  insidious  system.  Roman  re- 
Iinements  and  dignities  succeeded  in  denatioualiziag  the  brother, 
wlio  ass^nied  the  Roman  name  of  Flavins,  and  adhered  to  Rome 
lliroughout  all  her  wars  against  his  country.  Armiuius  remain 
yd  inibcught  by  honors  or  wealth,  uncorrnpted  by  refinement  or 
luxury.  He  aspired  to  and  obtained  from  Roman  enmity  a  high- 
iv  title  than  ever  could  have  been  given  him  by  Roman  favcr. 
It  is  in  the  page  of  Rome's  greatest  historian  that  his  name  has 
come  down  to  us  with  the  proud  addition  of  "  Liberator  baud 
dubie  Germanise.'"* 

Often  must  the  young  chieftain,  while  meditating  the  exploit 
which  has  thus  immortalized  him,  have  anxiously  revolved  in 
his  mind  the  fate  of  the  many  great  men  w^ho  had  been  crushed 
in  the  attempt  which  he  "was  about  to  renew — the  attempt  to 
stay  the  chariot-wheels  of  triumphant  Rome.  Could  he  hope  to 
succeed  where  Hannibal  and  Milhradates  had  perished?  What 
had  been  the  doom  of  Viriathus  ?  and  what  warning  against 
vain  valor  was  written  on  the  desolate  site  where  Numantia 
once  had  flourished  ?  Nor  was  a  caution  wanting  in  scenes 
nearer  home  and  more  recent  times.  The  Gauls  had  fruitlessly 
struggled  for 'eight  years  against  Caesar;  and  the  gallant  Ver- 
cingetorix,  who  in  the  last  year  of  the  war  had  roused  all  his 
countrymen  to  insurrection,  who  had  cut  off  Roman  detachments, 
and  brought  Cassar  himself  to  the  extreme  of  peril  at  Alesia — 
he,  too,  had  finally  succumbed,  had  been  led  captive  in  Ctrsar'a 
triumph,  and  had  then  been  butchered  in  cold  blood  in  a  Roman 
dungeon. 

It  was  true  that  Rome  was  no  longer  the  great  military  re- 
public which  for  so  many  ages  had  shattered  the  kingdoms  of 
th  5  world.  Her  system  of  government  was  changed  ;  and  after 
a  century  of  revolution  and  civil  war,  she  had  placed  herself 
undei  the  despotism  of  a  single  ruler.  But  the  discipline  of  her 
troops  was  yet  unimpaired,  and  her  warlike  spirit  seemed  uu- 
abated  The  first  year  of  the  empire  had  been  signalized  by 
conquests  as  valuable  as  any  gained  by  the  republic  in  a  cor 
responding  period.  It  is  a  great  fallacy,  though  apparently  sane- 
tiouod  by  great  authorities,  to  suppose  that  the  foreign  policj 
•  Tacitus,  "Annals,"  ii..  88. 
¥2 


13U  VICTOR!     OF     AUMIMUS     OVES 

pursued  by  Augustus  was  pacific  ;  he  certainly  retomiuende*! 
such  a  pohcy  to  his  successors  {incertum  metu  an  per  invidiam, 
Tag.,  Ann.,  i.,  11),  but  he  hinjself",  until  Arminius  broke  hia 
spirit,  had  followed  a  very  different  course.  Besides  his  Spanish 
wars,  his  generals,  in  a  series  of  generally  aggressive  oampaignn, 
had  extended  the  Roman  frontier  from  the  Alps  to  the  Danube, 
and  had  reduced  into  subjection  the  large  and  important  coun 
tiics  that  row  form  the  territories  of  all  Austria  south  of  thai 
TiVer.  and  ^f  East  Switzerland,  Lower  Wirtemberg,  Bavaria,  the 
Valtelline,  and  the  Tyrol.  While  the  progress  of  the  Roman 
arms  thus  pressed  the  Germans  from  the  south,  still  more  form- 
idable inroads  had  been  made  by  the  imperial  legions  on  the  west. 
Roman  armies,  noving  from  the  province  of  Gaul,  established  a 
chain  of  fortress  s  along  the  right  as  well  as  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  and,  in  a  series  of  victorious  campaigns,  advanced  their 
eagles  as  far  as  the  Elbe,  which  uoav  seemed  added  to  the  list 
of  vassal  rivers,  to  the  Nile,  the  Rhine,  the  Rhone,  the  Danube, 
the  Tagus,  the  Seine,  and  many  more,  that  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  the  Tiber.  Roman  fleets  also,  sailing  from  the 
harbors  of  Gaul  along  the  German  coasts  and  up  the  estuaries, 
co-operated  Avith  the  land-forces  of  the  empire,  and  seemed  to 
display,  even  more  decisively  than  her  armies,  her  overM'helming 
superiority  over  the  rude  Germanic  tribes.  Throughout  the  ter- 
ritory thus  invaded,  the  Romans  had,  with  their  usual  military 
skill,  established  fortified  posts ;  and  a  powerful  army  of  occu- 
pation was  kept  on  foot,  ready  to  move  instantly  on  any  spot 
where  any  popular  outbreak  might  be  attempted. 

Vast,  however,  and  admirably  organized  as  the  fabric  of  Ro- 
man power  appeared  on  the  frontiers  and  in  the  provinces,  there 
was  rottenness  at  the  core.  In  Rome's  unceasing  hostilities  with 
foreign  foes,  and  si  ill  more  in  her  long  series  of  desolating  civil 
wars,  the  free  middle  classes  of  Italy  had  almost  wholly  disap- 
peared Above  the  position  which  they  had  occupied,  an  oli- 
garchy of  wealth  had  reared  itself;  beneath  that  position,  a  de- 
graded iviass  of  poverty  and  misery  was  fermenting.  Slaves,  the 
jhance  sweepings  of  every  conquered  country,  shoals  of  Africans, 
Sardinians,  Asiatics,  Illyrians,  and  others,  made  up  the  bulk  of 
the  population  of  the  Italian  peninsula.  The  foulest  profligacy 
of  mannc's  was  general  in  all  ranks.  In  universal  weariness  of 
revolution  and  civil  war,  and  in  consciousness  of  being  too  de- 


T  11  t;     i;  O  M  AN      L  E  'J  I  O  X  6      J  N  L  K  i;      VARUS.  ]  3  i 

based  fur  sell-govenuneiil,  the  uutiou  had  submitted  itself  to  the 
aboolii*)  authority  of"  Augustus.  Adulation  was  now  the  chief 
function  of  the  senate;  I'lid  the  gilts  of  genius  and  accomplish' 
meuts  of  ait  were  devote.l  to  the  elaboration  of  eloquently  false 
panegyrics  upon  the  prince  and  his  favorite  cou  tiers.  With  bit- 
ter indignation  mus+  the  German  chieftain  have  beheld  all  this, 
ond  contrasted  with  it  the  rough  worth  of  his  own  countryrn.n  : 
thrir  bravery,  their  lidelity  to  their  word,  their  manly  indepcnd- 
en.:e  of  spirit,  their  love  of  their  national  free  institutions,  aud 
their  loathing  of  every  pollution  and  meanness.  Above  all,  he 
must  have  thought  of  the  domestic  virtues  that  hallowed  a  Ger- 
man home  ;  of  the  respect  there  shown  to  the  female  character, 
and  of  the  pure  afiection  by  which  that  respect  was  repaid.  His 
Boul  must  have  burned  within  him  at  the  contemplation  of  such 
a  race  yielding  to  these  debased  Italians. 

Still,  to  persuade  the  Germans  to  combine,  in  spite  of  their 
frequent  feuds  among  themselves,  in  one  sudden  outbreak  against 
Rome  ;  to  keep  the  scheme  concealed  from  the  Romans  until  the 
hour  for  action  arrived  ;  and  then,  without  possessing  a  single 
walled  town,  without  military  stores,  without  training,  to  teach 
his  insurgent  countrymen  to  defeat  veteran  armies  and  storm  for- 
tifications, seemed  so  perilous  an  enterprise,  that  probably  Armin- 
ius  would  have  receded  from  it  had  not  a  stronger  feeling  even 
than  patriotism  urged  him  on.  Among  the  Germans  of  high 
rank  who  had  most  readily  submitted  to  the  invaders,  and  become 
zealous  partisans  of  Roman  authority,  was  a  chieftain  named 
Segestes.  His  daughter,  Thusnelda,  was  pre-eminent  among  the 
noble  maidens  of  Germany.  Arminius  had  sought  her  hand  in 
marriage  ;  but  Segestes,  who  probably  discerned  the  young  chiefs 
disaflection  to  Rome,  forbade  his  suit,  and  strove  to  preclude  all 
communication  between  him  and  his  daughter.  Thusnelda,  how- 
ever, sympathized  far  more  with  the  heroic  spirit  of  hci  lover 
than  with  the  time-serving  policy  of  her  father.  An  elopement 
baflk'J  the  precautions  of  Segestes,  who,  disappointed  in  his  hope 
of  preventing  the  marriage,  accused  Arminius  before  the  Rcimaii 
gtjvevnor  of  having  carried  oil"  his  daughter,  and  of  planning  li<y.i 
j)(»n  agaiiisl  Rome.  Thus  assailed,  and  dreading  to  sec  his  bride 
torn  from  him  by  the  officials  of  the  foreign  oppressor,  Arminius 
delayed  no  longer,  but  bent  all  his  energies  to  organize  and  exe- 
cute a  general  insurrection  of  the  great  mass  of  his  countri'men. 


132  VICTORY     OF     AEMIMUS     OVER 

who  hitherto  had  suLniitted  in  sullen  hatred  to  the  Roman  do- 
minion. 

A  change  of  governors  had  recently  taken  place,  which,  whilo 
it  materially  favored  the  ultimate  success  of  th;5  insurgents, 
served,  by  the  immediate  aggravation  of  the  Roman  oppressions 
which  it  produced,  to  make  the  native  population  more  univeis.- 
ally  eager  to  take  arms.  Tiberius,  who  was  afterward  emperoi, 
nud  recently  heen  recall  ed  from  the  command  in  Germany,  and 
sent  into  Pannonia  to  put  down  a  dangerous  revolt  which  h.id 
broken  out  ao-^inst  the  R,omans  in  that  province.  The  German 
patriots  Avere  thus  delivered  from  the  stern  supervision  of  one  of 
the  most  suspicious  of  mankind,  and  were  also  relievea  from  hav- 
ing to  contend  against  the  high  military  talents  of  a  veteran  com- 
mander, who  thoroughly  understood  their  national  character,  and 
also  the  nature  of  the  country,  which  he  himself  had  principally 
suhdued.  In  the  room  of  Tiberius,  Augustus  sent  into  Germany 
duintiliua  Varus,  who  had  lately  returned  from  the  proconsulate 
of  Syria.  Varus  was  a  true  representative  of  the  higher  classes 
of  the  Romans,  among  whom  a  general  taste  for  literature,  a  keen 
susceptibility  to  all  intellectual  gratifications,  a  minute  acquaint- 
ance wdth  the  principles  and  practice  of  their  own  national  juris- 
prudence, a  careful  training  in  the  schools  of  the  rhetorician? 
and  a  fondness  for  either  partaking  in  or  watching  the  intellect- 
ual strife  of  forensic  oratory,  had  become  generally  diffused,  with 
out,  however,  having  humanized  the  old  Roman  spirit  of  crueJ 
indifference  for  human  feelings  and  human  sufferings,  and  with- 
out acting  as  the  least  checks  on  unprincipled  avarice  and  am- 
bition, or  on  habitual  and  gross  prolligacy.  Accustomed  to  gov- 
ern the  depraved  and  debased  natives  of  Syria,  a  country  where 
courage  in  man  and  virtue  in  woman  had  for  centuries  been  un- 
known. Varus  thought  that  he  might  gratify  his  licentious  and 
rapacious  passions  with  equal  impunity  among  the  high-minded 
Euiis  and  pure-spirited  daughters  of  Germany.*     "When  the  gen- 

■*  I  can  tuit  f(>il)car  quoting  Manaulay's  beautiful  lines,  where  he  de 
Dcribes  iioiv  similar  ouliages  in  tiie  early  times  of  Rome  goa'led  ttiP  pl» 
brians  to  rise  again.sl  the  jiatiicinns  : 
'  Tlf-ap  heavier  still  the  fellers  ;  bar  c\  )ser  slill  the  grate  ; 

I'.ilient  as  sheep  we  yield  js  up  unto  your  cruel  hate. 

Bui  l)y  the  siiudes  beneath  us,  and  by  the  gods  above, 

Add  net  unto  yeiii  cruel  hale  your  still  more  cruel  lova 


THE  ROMAN  LEGIONS  UNDER  VARUS.       1 1. 3 

Rial  ol"  an  army  sets  the  example  of  outrages  of  tliis  descripiioii, 
ho  is  soon  faithfully  imitated  by  his  ollicers,  and  surpiissed  hy  hip 
siiij  more  brutal  soldiery.  Th<^  Romans  now  habituiilly  indulged 
m  those  violations  of  the  sanctity  of  the  domestic  shrine,  and 
those  insults  upon  honor  and  modesty,  by  which  far  less  gallant 
spirits  than  those  of  our  Teutonic  ancestors  have  oftea  been  mad  • 
dcnad  into  insurrection. 

Arminius  found  among  the  other  German  chiefs  many  whc 
i}Tnj)athized  with  him  in  his  indignation  at  their  country's  abase 
Hient,  and  many  whom  private  Avrongs  had  stung  yet  more  deep 
iy.  There  "was  little  ditliculty  in  collecting  bold  leaders  ibr  an 
httack  on  the  oppressors,  and  little  fear  of  the  population  not 
rising  readily  at  those  leaders'  call.  But  to  declare  open  wai 
against  Rome,  and  to  encounter  Varus's  army  in  a  pitched  battle, 
would  have  been  merely  rushing  upon  certain  destruction.  Varus 
had  three  legions  under  him,  a  force  which,  after  allowing  foi 
detachments,  can  not  be  estimated  at  less  than  fourteen  thou- 
sand Roman  infantry.  He  had  also  eight  or  nine  hundred  Roman 
cavalry,  and  at  least  an  equal  number  of  horse  and  foot  sent 
from  the  allied  states,  or  raised  among  those  provincials  who  had 
not  received  the  Roman  franchise. 

It  Avas  not  merely  the  number,  but  the  quality  of  this  force 
that  made  thorn  formidable  ;  and,  however  contemptible  Varun 
might  be  as  a  general,  Arminius  well  knew  how  admirably  the 
Roman  armies  were  organized  and  officered,  and  how  perfectly 
the  legionaries  understood  every  maneuver  and  evei'y  duty  which 
the  varying  emergencies  of  a  stricken  field  might  require.  Strat- 
agem was,  therefore,  indispensable  ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  blnid 
Varus  to  their  schemes  until  a  favorable  opportunity  should  ar- 
rive for  striking  a  decisive  blow. 

tor  this  purpose,  the  German  confederates  frequented  the  head 

Then  leave  the  poor  plebeian  his  single  lie  to  life — 

The  sweet,  sweet  love  of  dautrhter,  of  si.ster,  and  ■>(  wife, 

The  gentle  speech,  the  hahii  for  all  thai  iiis  vex'u  soul  endures, 

The  kiss  in  which  he  half  forgets  even  siicli  a  yoke  as  yours. 

Still  let  the  maiden's  beauty  swell  the  father's  breast  witi  pride  ; 

Still  let  the  bridegroom's  arms  cnfidd  an  unpolhitrd  bride. 

Spare  us  the  inexpiable  wrong,  tlie  unutterable  shame, 

That  turns  the  coward's  lieart  lo  steel,  the  sluggard's  blood  to  name  ■ 

Lest  when  our  latest  hope  is  fled  ye  taste  of  our  despair, 

And  learn  by  proof,  in  some  wild  hour,  how  much  the  wretched  dark 


1  ;J4  V  I  C  T  O  R  Y     O  F     A  R  .M  I  M  C  5     U  V  E  K 

quart*  rs  of  Varus,  wliich  seem  to  have  been  near  the  centre  ol 
the  modern  coiuitiy  of  Westphalia,  where  the  Roman  general 
conducted  himself  with  all  the  arrogant  securitj'  of  the  governor 
of  a  perfectly  submissive  province.  There  Varus  gratified  at 
onco  his  vanity,  his  rhetorical  tastes,  and  his  avarice,  by  holding 
nourts,  to  which  he  summoned  the  Germans  for  the  settlement 
of  all  their  disputes,  while  a  bar  of  Roman  advocates  attended 
to  argue  the  cases  before  the  tribunal  of  Varus,  who  did  not  omit 
the  opportunity  of  exacting  court-fees  and  accepting  bribes. 
Varus  trusted  implicitly  to  the  respect  which  the  Germans  pre- 
tended to  pay  to  his  abilities  as  a  judge,  and  to  the  interest 
which  they  affected  to  take  in  the  forensic  eloquence  of  their 
conquerors.  Meanwhile,  a  su'^cession  of  heavy  rains  rendered 
the  country  more  difficult  for  the  operations  of  regular  troops, 
and  Arminius,  seeing  that  the  infatuation  of  Varus  was  complete, 
secretly  directed  the  tribes  near  the  Weser  and  the  Ems  to  take 
up  arms  in  open  revolt  against  the  Romans.  This  was  repre- 
sented to  Varus  as  an  occasion  which  required  his  prompt  attend- 
ance at  the  spot  ;  but  he  was  kept  in  studied  ignorance  of  its 
being  part  of  a  concerted  national  rising  ;  and  he  still  looked  on 
Arminius  as  his  submissive  vassal,  Avhose  aid  he  might  rely  on  in 
facilitating  the  march  of  his  troops  against  the  rebels,  and  in  ex- 
tinguishing the  local  disturbance.  He  therefore  set  his  army  in 
motion,  and  marched  eastward  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  course  of 
the  Lippe.  For  some  distance  his  route  lay  along  a  level  plain  ; 
but  on  arriving  at  the  tract  between  the  curve  of  the  upper  part 
of  that  stream  and  the  sources  of  the  Ems,  the  country  assumes 
a  very  diflerent  character  ;  and  here,  in  the  territory  of  the  mod- 
ern little  principality  of  Lippe,  it  was  that  Arminius  had  fixed 
the  scene  of  his  enterprise. 

A  woody  and  hilly  region  intervenes  between  the  heads  of  the 
two  rivers,  and  forms  the  water-shed  of  their  streams.  This  re- 
gion still  retains  the  name  (Teutoberger  wald  =  Teutobergiensie 
eallus)  which  it  bore  in  the  days  of  Arminius.  The  nature  of 
Ihe  ground  has  probably  also  remained  unaltered.  The  eastern 
:>art  of  it,  round  Dclniold,  the  modern  capital  of  the  principality 
of  Lippe,  is  described  by  a  modern  German  scholar,  ±)r.  Plat.?, 
a:i  being  a  "  lable-land  intersected  by  numeious  deep  and  narrow 
valleys,  which  in  some  places  form  small  plains,  surrounded  b) 
oteep  innur-.tains  and  rocks,  and  only  accessible  by  narrow  defilea 


THE  ROMAU  LEGIONS  UNDER  VARUS.       133 

All  the  valleys  are  traversed  by  rapid  streams,  shallow  ii  the 
dry  season,  but,  subjeet  to  fjuddeii  swellings  in  autunui  and  witi- 
(or.  The  vast  forests  which  cover  the  summit?  and  slopes  of  the 
l.iUs  consist  chiefly  of  oak  ;  there  is  little  underwood,  and  both 
mon  and  horse  would  move  with  ease  in  the  i'orests  if  the  grounc' 
were  not  broken  by  gfulleys,  or  rendered  impracticable  by  fallen 
trees."  This  is  the  district  to  which  Varus  is  supposed  to  havo 
marched  ;  and  Dr.  Plate  adds,  that  "  the  names  of  several  locali- 
ties on  and  near  that  spot  seem  to  indicate  that  a  great  battle 
Ins  once  been  fought  there.  We  find  the  names  '  dasWinnefeld' 
{the  field  of  victory),  '  die  Knochenbahn'  (the  bone-lane),  '  die 
Knochenleke"  (the  bone-brook),  '  der  Mordkessel'  (the  kettle  of 
slaughter),  and  others."* 

Contrary  to  the  usual  strict  principles  of  Roman  discipline, 
Varus  had  suffered  his  army  to  be  accompanied  and  impeded  by 
an  immense  train  of  baggage-wagons  and  by  a  rabble  of  camp 
followers,  as  if  his  troops  had  been  merely  changing  their  quar 
ters  in  a  friendly  country.  When  the  long  array  quitted  the  firr:j 
level  ground,  and  began  to  wind  its  way  among  the  woods,  the 
marshes,  and  the  ravines,  the  difficulties  of  the  march,  even  with- 
out the  intervention  of  an  armed  foe,  became  fearfully  apparent. 
In  many  places,  the  soil,  sodden  with  rain,  was  impracticable  for 
cavalry,  and  even  for  infantry,  until  trees  had  been  felled,  and  a 
rude  causeway  formed  through  the  morass. 

The  duties  of  the  engineer  were  familiar  to  all  who  served  in 
the  Roman  armies.  But  the  crowd  and  confusion  of  the  colunuia 
embarrassed  the  working  parties  of  the  soldiery,  and  in  the  midst 
of  their  toil  and  disorder  the  word  was  suddenly  passed  through 
their  ranks  that  the  rear  guard  was  attacked  by  the  barbarians. 
Varus  resolved  on  pressing  forward  ;  but  a  heavy  discharge  of 
missiles  from  the  woods  on  either  flank  taught  him  hoAV  serioua 
was  the  peril,  and  he  saw  his  best  men  falling  round  him  with* 
out  the  opportunity  of  retaliation  ;  for  his  light-armed  auxiliaries, 
who  were  principally  of  Germanic  race,  now  rapidly  deserted, 
an<;  it  was  impossible  to  deploy  the  legionaries  on  sn^-h  broket 
ground  fi;i-  a  charge  against  the  enemy.  Choosing  onr  of  the 
most  o'Cii  and  firm  spots  which  thoy  could  force  tiieir  way  to, 
the  Romans  halted  for  the  night ;  and,  faithful  to  tneir  national 

*  I  am  indebted  fur  much  valuable  informalion  on  lli,3  Bubject  to  taj 
frierd,  Mr.  Henry  Pearson. 


136  VICTORY     OF     A  R  M  I  N  I  U  S     O  V  E  K 

discipline  and  tactics,  formed  theii  f  a  np  amid  th".  harassing  al 
tacks  of  the  rapid  y  thronging  foet,  with  the  elaborate  toil  and 
systematic  skill,  the  traces  of  which  are  impressed  permanently 
on  the  soil  of  so  many  European  countries,  attesting  the  presence 
in  tlie  olden  time  of  the  imperial  eagles. 

On  the  morrow  the  Romans  renewed  their  march,  the  \'etevan 
•jlFiccTS  who  served  under  Varus  now  probably  directing  the  op 
?valirjns,  and  hoping  to  find  the  Germans  drawn  up  to  meet  thi'm 
in  which  case  they  relied  on  their  own  superior  discipline  and 
tactics  for  such  a  victory  as  should  reassure  the  supremacy  of 
Rome.  But  Arminius  was  far  too  sage  a  commander  to  lead  or 
his  followers,  with  their  unwieldy  broadswords. and  inefficient  de- 
fensive armor,  against  the  Roman  legionaries,  fully  armed  with 
helmet,  cuirass,  greaves,  and  shield,  who  were  skilled  to  com- 
mence  the  conflict  with  a  murderous  volley  of  heavy  javelins, 
hurled  upon  the  foe  when  a  few  yards  distant,  and  then,  with 
their  short  cut-and-thrust  swords,  to  hew  their  way  through  all 
opposition,  preserving  the  utmost  steadiness  and  cooltiess,  and 
obeying  each  word  of  command  in  the  midst  of  st'ife  and  slaugh- 
ter with  the  same  precision  and  alertness  as  if  upon  parade.* 
Arminius  sufiered  the  Romans  to  march  out  from  their  camp,  to 
form  first  in  line  for  action,  and  then  in  column  for  marching, 
without  the  show  of  opposition.  For  some  distance  Varus  was 
allowed  to  move  on,  only  harassed  by  slight  skirmishes,  but  strug- 
gling with  difficulty  through  the  broken  ground,  the  toil  and  dis- 
tress of  his  men  being  aggravated  by  heavy  torrents  of  rain, 
which  burst  upon  the  devoted  legions,  as  if  the  angry  gods  of 
Germany  were  pouring  out  the  vials  of  their  wrath  upon  the  in- 
vaders. After  some  little  time  their  van  approached  a  ridge  of 
high  woody  ground,  which  is  one  of  the  offshoots  of  the  great 
Hercynian  forest,  and  is  situate  between  the  modern  villages  of 
Driburg  and  Bielefeld.  Arminius  had  caused  barricades  of  hewn 
trees  to  be  formed  here,  so  as  to  add  to  the  natural  difficu.ties  of 
the  passage.  Fatigue  and  discouragement  n.nv  began  to  betiay 
themselves  in  the  Roman  ranks.  Th«ir  line  became  less  steady  ; 
Inggage-wagons  were  abandoned  from  the  impossibility  of  forcing 
Ihem  along  ;  and,  as  this  haj  pened  many  soldiers  left  their  /anka 

•  See  Gibbon's  descrip'ion  (vol.  i  ,  clmp    i.)  of  tbe  Roman  regions  it 
ihe  tune  of  Anawslus  ;  and  see  Uie  ilescriplior.  in  Tacilus,  "  Ann.,"  lib  \ 
Bf  the  subspqnent  battles  between  Caicina  and  Arminius. 


THt     «.OMAN     LEGIONS     UNDER     VAS.U8.  131 

and  crowded  round  the  wagons  to  secure  the  most  valnahle  por« 
lions  ol'  their  property  :  each  was  busy  about  his  own  ad'airs,  and 
purposely  slow  in  hearing  the  word  ol'  couiiuand  IVom  his  olhcerfc. 
Armiu'us  now  gave  the  signal  lor  a  general  attack.  The  fierce 
shouts  of  the  Germans  pealed  through  the  gloom  of  the  fcrcK^ts, 
and  ir.  thronging  multitudes  they  assailed  the  flanks  cf  the  in 
va  iei'H,  pouring  in  clouds  of  darts  on  the  encumbered  legionaries, 
a.5  they  struggled  up  the  glens  or  fljiaidered  in  the  morasses,  and 
';^'atohing  every  opportunity  of  charging  through  the  intervals  of 
the  disjointed  column,  and  so  cutting  off"  the  communication  be- 
tween its  several  brigades.  Arminius,  with  a  chosen  band  of  per- 
sonal retainers  round  him,  cheered  on  his  countrymen  by  voien 
and  example.  He  and  his  men  aimed  their  weapons  particularly 
at  the  horses  of  the  lioman  cavalry.  The  wounded  animals,  slip 
ping  about  in  the  mire  and  their  own  blood,  threw  their  riders 
and  plunged  among  the  ranks  of  the  legions,  disordering  all  round 
them.  Varus  now  ordered  the  troops  to  be  countermarched,  in 
the  hope  of  reaching  the  nearest  Roman  garrison  on  the  Lippe.* 
But  retreat  now  was  as  impracticable  as  advance  ;  and  the  fall- 
ing baf'k  of  the  Romans  only  augmented  the  courage  of  their  as- 
sailants, and  caused  fiercer  and  more  frequent  charges  on  the 
flanks  e,f  the  disheartened  army.  The  Roman  officer  who  eon 
manded  the  cavalry,  Numonius  Vala,  rode  off  with  his  squadrons 
in  the  vain  hope  of  escaping  by  thus  abandoning  his  comrade's. 
Unable  to  keep  together,  or  force  their  way  across  the  woods  and 
Bwamps,  the  horsemen  were  overpowered  in  detail,  and  slaugh- 
tered to  the  last  man.  The  Roman  infantry  still  held  together 
and  resisted,  but  more  through  the  instinct  of  discipline  and 
bravery  than  from  any  hope  of  success  or  escape.     Varus,  altei 

*  The  circumstances  of  the  early  part  of  tlie  battle  which  Ariiiinius 
fdiisjht  with  Cjecina  six  years  afterward  evidently  resembled  those  of  his 
baiilp  wth  Varus,  and  the  result  was  very  near  being  the  same:  I  have 
therefore  adopted  part  of  the  descrijjtion  which  Tacitus  gives  ("  Annal  ," 
lib.  ].,  c.  65)  of  the  last-mentioned  engagement :  "  Neque  tamen  Arminius, 
.jiiaiiiqiiam  libero  incursu,  statim  prurupi; :  sed  ut  hjesere  cocno  fossisque 
impedimenta,  fnbali  circum  milites ;  incerlus  signorum  ordo  ;  uique  tali 
in  lempDre  sibi  quisque  properus,  et  Icntae  adversum  mperia  aurcs,  if  ruin- 
ptre  Gerinanos  jubet,  claniitans  *  En  varus,  el  eodem  iterum  falo  victa 
legiiinea!'  Simul  ba>c,  et  cum  deleclis  sciiidit  agmen,  equisque  ma.vimfi 
vulnera  ingerit ;  illi  sanguine  suo  et  lubrioo  paludum  lapsa:;les,  excLSsii 
rectorihus,  disjicere  obvios,  proterere  jacentes  " 


\ob  VICTORY     OF     ARAIl.UUS     OVER 

being  severelj^  wounded  in  a  charge  of  the  Germans  against  hii 
part  of  the  column,  committed  suicide  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
handa  of  those  whom  he  had  exasperated  by  his  oppression* 
One  of  the  lieutenant  generals  of  the  army  fell  fighting  ;  the  ot.hoi 
Eurrendered  to  the  enemy.  But  mercy  to  a  fallen  foe  had  never 
been  a  Roman  virtue,  and  those  among  her  legions  who  now  laid 
down  their  arms  in  hope  of  quarter,  drank  deep  of  the  cup  of  suf 
fciing,  which  Rome  had  held  to  the  lips  of  many  a  brave  but 
unfortunate  enemy.  The  infuriated  Germans  slaughtered  their 
oppressors  with  deliberate  ferocity,  and  those  prisoners  who  were 
not  hewn  to  pieces  on  the  spot  were  only  preserved  to  perish  by 
a  more  cruel  death  in  cold  blood. 

The  bulk  of  the  Roman  army  fought  steadily  and  stubbornly, 
frequently  repelling  the  masses  of  the  assailants,  but  gradually 
losing  the  compactness  of  thrir  array,  and  becoming  weaker  and 
weaker  beneath  the  incessant  shoM'er  of  darts  and  the  reiterated 
assaults  of  the  vigorous  and  unencumbered  Germans.  At  last, 
in  a  series  of  desperate  attacks,  the  column  was  pierced  through 
and  through,  two  of  the  eagles  captured,  and  the  Roman  host, 
which  on  the  yester  morning  had  marched  forth  iir  such  pride 
and  might,  now  broken  up  into  confused  fragments,  either  fell 
fighting  beneath  the  overpowering  numbers  of  the  enemy,  oi 
perished  in  the  swamps  and  woods  in  unavailing  eflbrts  at  flight 
Few,  very  few,  ever  saw  again  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  One 
body  of  brave  veterans,  arraying  themselves  in  a  ring  on  a  little 
mound,  beat  off"  every  charge  of  the  Germans,  and  prolonged  their 
honorable  r'^sistance  to  the  close  of  that  dreadful  day.  The 
traces  of  a  feeble  attempt  at  forming  a  ditch  and  mound  attested 
in  after  years  the  spot  Avhere  the  last  of  the  Romans  passed  their 
night  of  suffering  and  desjiair  But  on  the  morrow,  this  remnant 
al.so,  worn  out  with  hunger,  wounds,  and  toil,  was  charged  by  the 
victorious  Germans,  and  either  massacred  on  the  spot,  or  oflored 
ujt  in  fearful  rites  at  the  altars  of  the  deities  of  the  old  mythol- 
ogy of  the  North. 

A  gorge  in  the  mountaii:.  ridge,  through  which  runs  the  modern" 
yoad  between  Paderborn  and  Pyrniont,  leads  from  the  spot  wheie 
the  heat  of  the  battle  raged  to  the  Exterstcine,  a  cluster  of  bold 
and  grotesque  rocks  of  sandstone,  near  which  is  a  small  sheet  of 
water,  overshadowed  by  a  grove  of  aged  trees.  According  tc 
lo<ial  tradition,  this  was  one  of  the  sacred  groves  of  the  ancient 


THE  ROMAN  LEGIONS  UNDER  VARUS.       139 

CJcrmans,  and  it  was  liere  that  llio  Roman  captives  Avere  slain 
in  sacrifice  by  the  victorious  warriors  ot"  Arminius.* 

Never  was  victory  more  decisive,  never  was  the  Ubcration  of 
an  oppressed  people  more  instantaneous  and  complete.  Through- 
out (icrmany  the  Roman  garrisons  were  assailed  anil  cut  od"; 
and,  within  a  few  weeks  after  Varus  had  fallen,  the  German 
soil  was  freed  from  the  foot  of  an  invader. 

At  Rome  the  tidings  of  the  battle  were  received  with  an  ago- 
ny of  terror,  the  reports  of  which  we  should  deem  exaggerated, 
did  they  not  come  from  Roman  historians  themselves.  They 
not  only  tell  emphatically  how  great  was  the  awe  which  the  Ro- 
mans felt  of  the  prowess  of  the  Germans,  if  their  various  tribes 
could  be  brought  to  unite  for  a  common  purpose,!  but  also  they 
reveal  how  weakened  and  debased  the  population  of  Italy  had 
become.  Dion  Cassius  says  (lib.  Ivi.,  sec.  23),  "  Then  Augustus, 
when  he  heard  the  calamity  of  Varus,  rent  his  garment,  and  was 
in  great  affliction  for  the  troops  he  had  lost,  and  lor  terror  re- 
Bpe'. (ing  the  Germans  and  the  Gauls.  And  his  chief  alarm 
was,  that  he  expected  them  to  push  on  against  Italy  and  Rome  ; 
and  there  remained  no  Roman  youth  fit  for  military  duty  that 
were  worth  speaking  of,  and  the  allied  populations,  that  Mere  at 
all  serviceable,  had  been  wasted  away.  Yet  he  prepared  for  the 
emergency  as  well  as  his  means  allowed  ;  and  when  none  of  the 
citizens  of  military  age  were  willing  to  enlist,  he  made  them  cast 
lots,  and  punished  by  confiscation  of  goods  and  disfranchisement 
every  fifth  man  among  those  under  thirty-five,  and  every  tenth 
man  of  those  above  that  age.  At  last,  when  he  found  that  not 
even  thus  could  he  make  many  come  forward,  he  put  some  of 
them  to  death.  So  he  made  a  conscription  of  discharged  veter- 
ans and  of  emancipated  slaves,  and,  collecting  as  large  a  force 

*  "  Lueis  propinquis  barharae  arae,  apud  quas  tril)un()s  ac  primorum  or 
dinuin  ccnturiones  niactaverant." — Tacitus,  Ann  ,  lib    i.,  c.  Gl. 

+  It  is  clfar  tiiat  the  Ilomans  followed  Uie  policy  of  fomenting  dissen- 
eions  and  wars  of  the  German.s  among  themselves.  See  the  thiity-tliira 
section  of  the  "Gerniania"'  of  Tacitus,  where  he  mentions  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Bructeri  hy  the  neighboring  tribes  :  "  Favorc  qimc^am  erga  nos 
deorum  :  nam  ne  speciaculo  qiiidein  proeiii  invidere  :  snper  Ix.  niillia  noil 
arnns  telisque  Romanis,  sod  (]U(id  magnificentius  est,  oblettationi  oeiilis- 
que  ceciderunt.  Maiieat  qiueso,  duret(|ue  gcntibus,  si  noii  amor  nostn,  a1 
eerie  odium  sui:  quando  urgeniibus  imperii  fatis,  nihil  jam  praestare  for 
una  majus  potest  quam  hostium  discordiam." 


liO  VICTORY     OF     AKMINIUS.    ETC. 

as  he  could,  sent  it,  uiiier  Tiberius,  with  all  speed  into  (res 
n  any." 

Dion  mentions,  also,  a  rimiber  of  terrific  portents  that  were 
believed  to  have  occurre:  at  the  time,  and  the  narration  of 
which  is  not  immaterial,  as  it  shows  the  state  of  the  public  i.  liud, 
when  such  things  were  so  believed  in  and  so  interpreted.  The 
summits  of  the  Alps  were  said  to  have  fallen,  and  three  coluir.na 
"}{  fire  to  have  blazed  up  from  them.  In  the  Campus  Marlius, 
the  temple  of  the  war-god,  from  whom  the  founder  of  Rome  had 
sprung,  was  struck  by  a  thunderbolt.  The  nightly  heavens 
glowed  several  times,  as  if  on  fire.  Many  comets  blazed  forth 
together  ;  and  fiery  meteors,  shaped  like  spears,  had  shot  from 
the  northern  quarter  of  the  sky  down  into  the  Roman  camps 
It  was  said,  too,  that  a  statue  of  Victory,  which  had  stood  at  a 
place  on  the  frontier,  pointing  the  way  toward  Germany,  had, 
of  its  own  accord,  turned  round,  and  now  pointed  to  Italy.  These 
and  other  prodigies  were  believed  by  the  multitude  to  accom 
pany  the  slaughter  of  Varus's  legions,  and  to  manifest  the  anger 
of  the  gods  against  Rome.  Augustus  himself  Avas  not  free  from 
superstition  ;  but  on  this  occasion  no  supernatural  terrors  were 
needed  to  increase  the  alarm  and  grief  that  he  felt,  and  which 
made  him,  even  months  after  the  news  of  the  battle  had  arrived, 
often  beat  his  head  against  the  wall,  and  exclaim,  "  Gluintilius 
Varus,  give  me  back  my  legions.''  W^e  learn  this  from  his  biog- 
rapher Suetonius  ;  and,  indeed,  every  ancient  writer  who  al- 
ludes to  the  overthrow  of  Varus  attests  the  importance  of  the 
blow  against  the  Roman  power,  and  the  bitterness  with  which 
It  was  felt.* 

The  Germans  did  not  pursue  their  victory  beyond  their  own 
territoi-y  ;  but  that  victory  secured  at  once  and  forever  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Teutonic  race.  Rome  sent,  indeed,  her  legiona 
again  into  Germany,  to  parade  a  temporary  superiocity,  but  all 
hopes  of  permanent  conquests  were  abandoned  by  Aug,i:stus  an! 
his  successors. 

Tlie  blow  which  .A  rminius  had  struck  never  was  fc  rr;crteii 
Roman  fear  disguised  itself  under  the  specious  title  of  mudeiA- 
tion,  and  the  Rhine  became  the  acknowledged  boundary  of  the 

*  Florus  cxprosscs  its  effect  most  pilliily  :  "  Hue  clade  factum  est  ut 
lm|ieriuin  quod  in  litore  oceani  non  stelerat,  in  ripa  Illieni  fluminis  st* 
reV  Jv..  12 


ARMINIUSi  14l 

Iwc  nations  until  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  -when  the  Germani 
became  the  assailants,  and  carved  with  their  conquering  swords 
the  provinces  of  imperial  Rome  into  the  kingdoms  of  modern 
Eui  jpe. 


Arminius. 

I  have  said  above  that  the  great  Cheruscan  is  more  truly  end 
of  our  national  heroes  than  Caractacus  is.  It  may  be  added 
that  an  Englishman  is  entitled  to  claim  a  closer  degree  of  rela- 
tionship with  Arminius  than  can  be  claimed  by  any  German  of 
modern  Germany.  The  proof  of  this  depends  on  the  proof  of 
four  facts  :  first,  that  the  Cheruscans  were  Old  Saxons,  or  Sax- 
ons of  the  interior  of  Germany  ;  secondly,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
or  Saxons  of  the  coast  of  Germany,  were  more  closely  akin  than 
other  German  tribes  weve  to  the  Cheniscan  Saxons  ;  thirdly, 
that  the  Old  Saxons  were  almost  exterminated  by  Charlemagne  ; 
fourthly,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  are  our  immediate  ancestors. 
The  last  of  these  may  be  assumed  as  an  axiom  in  English  his- 
tory. The  proofs  of  the  other  three  are  partly  philological  and 
partly  historical.  I  have  not  space  to  go  into  them  here,  but 
they  will  be  found  in  the  early  chapters  of  the  great  work  of  my 
friend,  Dr.  Robert  Gordon  Latham,  on  the  "  English  Language," 
and  in  the  notes  to  his  forthcoming  edition  of  the  "  Gerraania  of 
Tacitus."  It  may  be,  however,  here  remarked,  that  the  present 
Saxons  of  Germany  are  of  the  High  Germanic  division  of  the 
German  race,  whereas  both  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Old  Saxon 
were  of  the  Low  Germanic. 

Being  thus  the  nearest  heirs  of  the  glory  of  Arminius,  we  may 
fairly  devote  more  attention  to  his  career  than,  in  such  a  work 
as  the  present,  could  be  allowed  to  any  individual  leader ;  and 
it  is  interesting  to  trace  how  far  his  fame  survived  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  both  among  the  Germans  of  the  Continent  and 
Hr.iong  ourselves. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  jealousy  with  which  Maroboduus,  the 
king  of  the  Suevi  and  Marcomanni,  regarded  Arminius,  and  which 
ultimately  broke  out  into  open  hostilities  between  those  German 
tribes  and  the  Cherusci,  prevented  Arminius  from  leading  tlie 
confederate  Germans  to  attack  Italy  after  his  first  victory.     Per 


142  ar  MINI  us. 

haps  he-  may  have  had  the  rare  moderatic .i  of  he  ng  content  with 
the  liberation  of  his  country,  without  seeking  to  retaliate  oi  hei 
former  oppressors.  When  Tiberius  marched  into  Germany  in  the 
year  10,  Arminius  was  too  cautious  to  attack  him  on  ground  fa« 
voiable  to  the  legions,  and  Tiberius  Avas  too  skillful  to  entangle 
his  Iroops  in  the  difficult  parts  of  the  country.  His  marc^  ii.d 
countermarch  were  as  unresisted  as  they  were  unproductiv;  A 
few  years  later,  when  a  dangerous  revolt  of  the  Roman  legions 
near  the  frontier  caused  their  generals  to  find  them  active  em- 
ployment by  leading  them  into  the  interior  of  Germany,  we  find 
Arminius  again  active  in  his  country's  defense.  The  old  quarrel 
between  him  and  his  father-in-law,  Segestes,  had  broken  out  afresh. 
Segestes  now  called  in  the  aid  of  the  Roman  general,  Germani- 
cus,  to  whom  he  suiTendered  himself;  and  by  his  contrivance, 
his  daughter  ThusneLla,  the  wife  of  Arminius,  also  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  Romans,  being  far  advanced  in  pregnancy.  She 
showed,  as  Tacitus  relates,*  more  of  the  spirit  of  her  husband 
than  of  her  father,  a  spirit  that  could  not  be  subdued  into  tears 
or  supplications.  She  was  sent  to  Ravenna,  and  there  gave  birth 
to  a  son,  whose  life  we  know,  from  an  allusion  in  Tacitus,  to  have 
been  eventful  and  unhappy  ;  but  the  part  of  the  great  historian's 
work  which  narrated  his  fate  has  perished,  and  we  only  kiiow 
from  another  quarter  that  the  son  of  Arminius  was,  at  the  age  of 
four  years,  led  captive  in  a  triumphal  pageant  along  the  streets 
of  Rome. 

The  high  spirit  of  Arminius  was  goaded  almost  into  phrensy 
by  these  bereavements.  The  fate  of  his  wife,  thus  torn  from  him, 
and  of  his  babe  doomed  to  bondage  even  before  its  birth,  infl.amed 
the  eloquent  invectives  with  which  he  roused  his  countrymen 
against  the  home-traitors,  and  against  their  invaders,  who  thug 
made  war  upon  women  and  children.  Germanicus  had  marched 
his  army  to  the  place  where  Varus  had  perished,  and  had  there 
paid  funeral  honors  to  the  ghastly  relics  ol  his  predecessor's  legions 
that  he  found  heaped  around  him.f  Arminius  lured  him  to  ad- 
vance a  little  further  into  the  country,  and  then  assailed  him,  and 
fiiught  a  battle,  which,  by  the  Roman  accounts,  Mas  a  di"awn 

'   "Ann.,"  i.,  57. 

+  In  the  Museum  of  Rhenish  Antiquities  at  Bonn  there  's  a  Roman  se- 
pulchral iiionuuient.  the  inscription  on  vviiich  records  that  it  was  erected 
to  the  memory  of  .\I    Coelius,  wlio  fell  "  Bella  Variano." 


ARMINIU9.  14i 

one.  The  efTect  of  it  was  to  make  Gerrranicus  resolve  on  retreat 
inf?  to  the  Rhine.  He  himselt,  with  part  of  his  troops,  embark- 
ed in  some  vessels  on  the  Ems,  and  returned  by  that  river,  and 
then  by  sea ;  but  part  of  his  forces  were  intrusted  to  a  Roniau 
general  named  Ctccina,  to  lead  them  back  by  land  to  the  Rhine. 
Arminius  ibllowed  this  division  on  its  march,  and  fought  several 
I'dtlles  with  it,  in  which  he  indicted  heavy  loss  on  the  Romans, 
Cfljitured  the  greater  part  of  their  baggage,  and  would  have  de- 
stroyed them  completely,  had  not  his  skillful  system  of  operations 
been  finally  thwarted  by  the  haste  of  Inguiomerus,  a  confederate 
German  chief,  Avho  insisted  on  assaulting  the  Romans  in  their 
camp,  instead  of  waiting  till  they  were  entangled  in  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  country,  and  assailing  their  columns  on  the  march. 

In  the  following  year  the  Romans  were  inactive,  but  in  the 
year  afterward  Germanicus  led  a  fresh  invasion.  He  placed  his 
army  on  shipboard,  and  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ems,  whervi 
he  disembarked,  and  marched  to  the  Weser,  where  he  encamped, 
probably  in  the  neighborhood  of  Minden.  Arminius  had  collect- 
ed his  army  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  ;  and  a  scene  occurred, 
which  is  powerfully  told  by  Tacitus,  and  which  is  the  subject  of 
d  beautiful  poem  by  Praed.  It  has  been  already  mentioned  that 
the  brother  of  Arminius,  like  himself,  had  been  trained  up  while 
young  to  serve  in  the  Roman  armies  ;  but,  unhke  Arminius,  he 
not  only  refused  to  quit  the  Roman  service  for  that  of  his  coun- 
try, but  fought  against  his  country  with  the  legions  of  Germani- 
cus. He  had  assumed  the  Roman  name  of  Flavius,  and  had 
gained  considerable  distinction  in  the  Roman  service,  in  whicl 
he  had  lost  an  eye  from  a  wound  in  battle.  When  the  Roman 
outposts  approached  the  River  Weser,  Arminius  called  out  to 
them  from  the  opposite  bank,  and  expressed  a  wish  to  see  hia 
brother.  Flavius  stepped  forward,  and  Arminius  ordered  his  own 
followers  to  retire,  and  requested  that  the  archers  should  be  re- 
moved from  the  Romair  bank  of  the  river.  This  was  done  ;  and 
the  brothers,  who  apparently  had  not  seen  each  other  for  some 
yeirs,  began  a  conversation  from  the  opposite  sides  of  the  stream, 
in  which  Arminius  questioned  his  brother  respecting  the  loss  of 
his  eye,  and  what  battle  it  had  been  lost  in,  and  what  reward 
he  had  received  for  his  wound.  Flavius  told  him  how  the  eye 
was  lost,  and  mentioned  the  increased  pay  that  he  had  on  account 
«f  its  loss,  and  showed  the  collar  and  other  militarv  decorationa 


I44  ASMINIUS. 

ih&t  had  been  given  lum.  Armiraus  mocked  at  these  as  fcadprei 
ot"  slavery ;  and  then  each  began  to  try  to  win  the  other  over, 
Flavins  boasting  the  power  of  Rome,  and  her  generosity  to  the 
submissive  ;  Arminius  appealing  to  aim  in  the  name  of  their 
country's  gods,  of  the  mother  that  had  borne  them  and  by  the 
holy  names  of  fatherland  and  freedom,  not  to  prefer  being  the  be 
trayer  to  being  the  champion  of  his  country.  They  soon  proceed 
ed  10  mutual  taunts  and  menaces,  and  Flavius  called  aloud  foi 
Irif  horse  and  his  arms,  that  he  might  dash  across  the  river  and 
attack  his  brother;  nor  would  he  have  been  checked  from  doing 
eo,  had  n  ot  the  Roman  general  Stertinius  run  up  to  him  and  for 
cibly  detained  him.  Arminius  stood  on  the  other  bank,  threat 
ening  the  renegade,  and  defying  him  to  battle. 

I  shall  not  be  thought  to  need  apology  for  quoting  here  the 
stanzas  in  which  Praed  has  described  this  scene — a  scene  among 
the  most  affecting,  as  well  as  the  most  striking,  that  history  sup- 
plies. It  makes  us  reflect  on  the  desolate  position  of  Arminius, 
with  his  wife  and  child  captives  in  the  enemy's  hands,  and  with 
his  brother  a  renegade  in  arms  against  him.  The  great  liberator 
of  cur  German  race  was  there,  with  every  source  of  human  hzp- 
pinnss  denied  him  except  the  consciousness  of  doing  his  duty  tn 
hie  country. 

Back,  back  !  he  fears  not  foaming  flood 

Who  fears  not  steel-clad  line : 
No  warrior  thoii  of  German  blood, 

No  brother  thou  of  mine. 
Go,  earn  Rome's  chain  to  load  thy  neck. 

Her  geins  to  deck  thy  hilt ; 
And  blazon  honor's  hapless  wreck 

With  all  the  gauds  of  guilt. 

But  wouldst  thou  have  me  share  the  preyl 

By  all  that  I  have  done, 
The  Varian  bones  that  day  by  day 

Lie  whitening  in  the  sun. 
The  legion's  trampled  panoply, 

Tlie  eagle's  shattcr'd  wing — 
I  would  not  be  for  earth  or  sky 

So  scorn'd  and  mean  a  thing. 

Ho,  call  me  iiere  me  wizard,  ly^'J", 

Of  dark  and  subtle  skill, 
To  agonize  but  not  destroy. 

To  torture,  not  to  kiil. 


AKMINIUS.  14(1 

When  swords  are  out,  and  shriek  and  Bhoiit 

Leave  little  room  for  prayer, 
No  fetter  on  man's  arm  or  heart 

Hangs  half  so  heavy  there. 

I  curse  him  by  the  gifts  the  land 

Hath  won  from  him  and  Rome, 
The  riving  axe,  the  wasting  brand. 

Kent  forest,  blazing  home. 
J  curse  him  by  our  country's  gods, 

The  terrible,  the  dark, 
The  breakers  of  the  Roman  rods, 

The  smiters  of  the  bark. 

Oh,  misery  that  such  a  ban 

On  such  a  brow  should  be ! 
Why  comes  he  not  in  battle's  van 

His  country's  chief  to  be^ 
To  stand  a  comrade  by  my  side, 

The  sharer  of  my  fame, 
And  worthy  of  a  brother's  pride 

And  of  a  brother's  name  1 

But  it  is  past !  where  heroes  press 

And  cowards  bend  the  knee, 
Arminius  is  not  brotherless, 

His  brethren  are  the  free. 
They  come  around  :  one  hour,  and  light 

Will  fade  from  turf  and  tide. 
Then  onward,  onward  to  the  fight, 

With  darkness  for  our  guide. 

To-night,  to-night,  when  we  shall  meet 

In  combat  face  to  face. 
Then  only  would  Arminius  greet 

The  renegade's  embrace. 
The  canker  of  Rome's  guilt  shall  be 

Upon  his  dying  name  ; 
And  as  he  lived  in  slavery, 

So  shall  he  fall  in  shame. 

On  the  day  after  the  Romans  had  reached  the  Weser,  (jrer- 
oaanicus  led  his  army  across  that  river,  and  a  partial  encountei 
took  place,  in  which  Arminius  was  successful.  But  on  the  suc- 
ceeding day  a  general  action  was  fought,  m  which  Arminius  wa« 
severely  wounded,  and  the  German  infantry  routed  with  heavy 
loss.  The  horsemen  of  the  two  armies  encountered,  without 
either  party  gaining  the  advantage.  But  the  Roman  army  re- 
mained mastei   of  the  ground,  and  claimed   a  complete  victory 

G 


;4»  ARMINIU9. 

Gevmameus  erecVed  a  trophy  in  the  field,  with  a  vaunting  inscrip 
tion,  that  the  nations  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe  had  been 
thoroughly  conquered  by  his  army.  But  that  army  speedily  made 
a  final  retreat  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine ;  nor  was  the  effect 
of  their  campaign  more  durable  than  their  trophy.  The  sarcasm 
with  which  Tacitus  speaks  of  certain  other  triumphs  of  Roman 
generals  over  Germans  may  apply  to  the  pageant  which  Ger- 
manicus  celebrated  on  his  return  to  Rome  from  his  command  of 
the  Roman  army  of  the  Rhine.  The  Germans  were  "  tritcmj^hatt 
potins  quam  victi." 

After  the  Romans  had  abandoned  their  attempts  on  Germany, 
we  find  Arminius  engaged  in  hostilities  with  Maroboduus,  the 
king  of  the  Suevi  and  Marcomamii,  who  was  endeavoring  to 
bring  the  other  German  tribes  into  a  state  of  dependency  on  him. 
Arminius  was  at  the  head  of  the  Germans  who  took  up  arms 
against  this  home  invader  of  their  liberties.  After  some  minor 
engagements,  a  pitched  battle  was  fought  between  the  two  con- 
federacies, A.D.  19,  in  which  the  loss  on  each  side  was  equal, 
but  Maroboduus  confessed  the  ascendency  of  his  antagonist  by 
avoiding  a  renewal  of  the  engagement,  ftnd  by  imploring  the  in- 
tervention of  the  Romans  in  his  defer/e.  The  younger  Drusua 
then  commanded  the  Roman  legions  ij7  the  province  of  Illyricum, 
and  by  his  mediation  a  peace  was  concluded  between  Arminius 
and  Maroboduus,  by  the  terms  of  wh?ch  it  is  evident  that  the  lat- 
ter must  have  renounced  his  ambitious  schemes  against  the  free- 
dom of  the  other  German  tribes. 

Arminius  did  not  long  survive  *his  second  war  of  independence, 
which  he  successfully  waged  for  his  country.  He  was  assassin- 
ated in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  his  age  by  some  of  his  own 
kinsmen,  who  conspired  against  him.  Tacitus  says  that  this 
happened  while  he  was  engaged  in  a  civil  war,  which  had  been 
caused  by  his  attempts  to  make  himself  king  over  his  countrymen. 
It  is  far  more  probable  (as  one  of  the  best  biographers*  has  ob- 
Berved)  that  Tacitus  misunderstood  an  attempt  of  Arminius  to  ex- 
tend his  influence  as  elective  wiir-chieflaiu  of  the  Cherusci,  and 
Ciher  tribes,  for  an  attempt  to  obtain  the  royal  dignity.  When 
we  icmember  that  his  father-in-law  and  his  brother  were  rene- 
g».de8,  we  cm  well  understand  that  a  party  among  his  kinsmen 

♦  Dr.  Plate,  in  "  Biographical  Dictionary,"  connmonced  by  the  Socicti 
for  th«  DifTusion  of  Useful  Knowle'ij;e. 


ARMINIUS.  14/ 

may  have  been  bitterly  hostile  to  him,  and  have  opposed  his  aii 
'hority  with  the  tribe  by  open  violence,  and,  when  that  seeriiej 
mefTectual,  by  secret  assassination. 

Arminius  left  a  name  which  the  historians  of  the  nation  against 
which  lie  combated  so  long  and  so  gloriously  have  delighted  to 
honor.  It  is  from  the  most  indisputable  source,  from  the  lips  of 
enemies  that  we  know  his  exploits.*  His  countrymen  made  his- 
toi;-,  but  (lid  not  write  it.  But  his  memory  lived  among  theux  in 
the  lays  cf  their  bards,  who  recorded 

The  deeds  he  did,  tlie  fields  he  won, 
The  freedom  he  restored. 

Tacitus,  writing  years  after  the  death  of  Arminius,  says  of  hini, 
"  Canitur  adhuc  barbaras  apud  gentes."  As  time  passed  on,  the 
gratitude  of  ancient  Germany  to  her  great  deliverer  grew  into 
adoration,  and  divine  honors  were  paid  for  centuries  to  Arminius 
by  every  trihe  of  the  Low  Germanic  division  of  the  Teutonic 
races.  The  Irmin-sul,  or  the  column  of  Herman,  near  Eresburgli, 
the  modern  Stadtberg,  was  the  chosen  object  of  worship  to  the 
descendants  of  the  Cherusci,  the  Old  Saxons,  and  in  defense  ol 
which  they  fought  most  desperately  against  Charlemagne  and 
his  Christianized  Franks.  "  Irmin,  in  the  cloudy  Olympus  of 
Teutonic  behef,  appears  as  a  king  and  a  warrior  ;  and  the  pil- 
lar, the  '  Irmin-sul,'  bearing  the  statue,  and  considered  as  the 
symbol  of  the  deity,  was  the  Palladium  of  the  Saxon  nation  until 
the  temple  of  Eresburgh  was  destroyed  by  Charlemagne,  and  the 
column  itself  transferred  to  the  monastery  of  Corbey,  where  per- 
haps a  portion  of  the  rude  rock  idol  yet  remains,  covered  by  the 
ornaments  of  the  Gothic  era."t  Traces  of  the  worship  of  Ar- 
minius are  to  be  found  among  our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors,  after 
their  settlement  in  this  island.  One  of  the  four  great  highways 
was  held  to  be  under  the  protection  of  the  deity,  and  was  called 
(he  "  Irmin  street."  Th(;  name  Arminius  is,  of  course,  the  mere 
Latinized  form  of  "  Herman,"  the  name  by  which  the  hero  and 
the  deity  were  known  by  every  man  of  Low  German  blood  on 
either  side  of  the  German  Sea.  It  means,  etymologically,  the 
"  War-man,"  the  "man  of  hosts."  No  other  explanation  of  the 
worship  of  the   "  Irmin-sul,"   and  of  the  name  of  tlie  "  Irmin 

*  See  Tacitus.  "Ann,"  lib.  ii.,  sec.  88  ;  Velleius  Paterculus,  lib  i  .. 
sec.  118. 

*  Palju'r.ive  on  the  "  English  Commonwealth,"  vol.  it.,  p.  140 


148  AftiVlINIUS. 

street,"  is  so  satisfactory  as  that  which  connects  them  with  the 
deified  Armiuius  We  know  for  certain  of  the  ejcistence  of  othel 
columns  of  an  analogous  character.  Thus  there  was  the  Roland- 
seule  in  North  Germany  ;  there  was  a  Thor-seule  in  Sweden,  and 
(what  is  more  important)  there  was  an  A*helstan-seule  in  Saxon 
England.* 

There  is  at  the  present  moment  a  song  respecting  the  Irmin 
gul  current  in  the  bishopric  of  Minden,  one  version  of  which  might 
Boem  only  to  refer  to  Charlemagne  having  pulled  down  the  Ir- 
nin-sul. 

Herman,  sla  dermen, 

Sla  pipen,  sla  trummen, 

De  Kaiser  will  kummen, 

Met  hamer  un  stangen. 

Will  Herman  uphangen. 

But  there  is  another  version,  which  probably  is  the  olde?-t,  and 
which  clearly  refers  to  the  great  Arminius. 

Un  Herman  slaug  dermen, 
Slaug  pipen,  slaug  trummen  ; 
De  fiirsten  sind  kammen, 
"  Met  all  eren-mannen 
Hebt  Varus  uphangen. + 

About  ten  centuries  and  a  half  after  the  demolition  of  the  Ir* 
min-sul,  and  nearly  eighteen  after  the  death  of  Arminius,  the  mod- 
ern Germans  conceived  the  idea  of  rendering  tardy  homage  to 
their  great  hero  ;  and  accordingly,  some  eight  or  ten  years  ago, 
1  general  subscription  was  organized  in  Germany  for  the  purpose 
)f  erecting  on  the  Osning — a  conical  mountain,  which  forms  tho 
lighest  summit  of  the  Teutoberger  Wald,  and  is  eighteen  bund- 
ed feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea — a  colossal  bronze  statue  of  Ar- 
minius. The  statue  was  designed  by  Bandel.  The  hero  wa? 
to  stand  uplifting  a  sM'ord  in  his  right  hand,  and  looking  toward 
the  Rhine.  The  height  of  the  statue  was  to  be  eighty  feet  from 
the  base  to  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  was  to  stand  on  a  circu- 
lar Gothic  temple  ninety  feet  high,  and  supported  by  oak  trees  ae 
columns.  The  mountain,  where  it  was  to  be  erected,  is  wild  and 
stern,  and  overlooks  the  scene  of  the  battle.     It  was  calculated 

*  See  Lappenburg's  "  Anglo-Saxons,"  p.  376.  For  nearly  all  the  phil- 
ological and  sthnographical  facts  respecting  Arminius,  I  am  indebted  to  mj 
friend.  Dr.  R.  G.  Latham. 

t  Sec  Grimm,  "  Deutsche  Mythologie,"  329. 


armin:us.  14y 

that  the  statue  would  be  clearly  visible  at  a  distance  jf  sixty 
miles.  The  temple  is  nearly  finished,  and  the  statue  itself  haa 
been  cast  at  the  copper  works  at  Lcmgo.  But  there,  through 
want  of  funds  to  set  it  up,  it  has  lain  for  some  years,  in  disjoint- 
ed fragments,  exposed  to  the  mutilating  homage  of  relic-seeking 
travelers.  The  idea  of  honoring  a  hero,  who  belongs  to  all  Ger- 
many, is  not  one  which  the  present  rulers  of  that  divided  country 
liave  any  wish  to  encourage  ;  and  the  statue  may  long  continue 
to  lie  there,  and  present  too  true  a  type  of  the  condition  of  Ger- 
many herself.  *" 

Surely  this  is  an  occasion  in  which  Englishmen  might  well 
prove,  by  acts  as  well  as  words,  that  we  also  rank  Arminius 
among  our  heroes. 

I  have  quoted  the  noble  stanzas  of  one  of  our  modern  English 
poets  on  Arminius,  and  I  will  conclude  this  memoir  with  one  of 
the  odes  of  the  great  poet  of  modern  Germany,  Klopstock,  on  thfe 
victory  to  which  we  owe  our  freedom,  and  Arminius  mainly  owe& 
his  fame.  Klopstock  calls  it  the  "  Battle  of  Winfeld."  The  epi 
thet  of  "  sister  of  Cannai"  shows  that  Klopstock  followed  some 
chronologers,  according  to  whom  Varus  was  defeated  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  day  on  which  Paulus  and  Varro  were  defeated  by 
Hannibal. 

son.'f  of  triumph  after  the  victory  of  herrma-X,  the 
deliverer  of  germany  from  the  romans. 

FKOM   KiOPSTOCK'S    "  HERR.VAN   UND   DIE    FURSTEN." 

Supposed  to  be  sung  by  a  chorus  of  Bards. 

A   CHORUS. 

Sister  of  Cannae  !t  Winfeld'.st  fight  ! 
We  saw  thee  with  ihy  streaming,  bloody  hair, 
With  fiery  eye,  bright  with  the  world's  despair, 
Sweep  by  Walhalla's  bards  from  out  our  sight. 

Herrman  outspake  :  "  Now  Victory  or  Death  !'* 
The  Romans  .  .  .  "Victory  !" 
And  onward  rushed  their  eagles  with  the  cry. 
So  ended  the  first  day. 

•  On  the  subject  of  this  statue,  I  must  repeat  an  acknowledgment  of  m« 
DOligations  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Henry  Pearson, 
t  The  battle  of  Cannas,  B.C.  216 — Hannibal's  victory  over  the  Romana 
■»   Winfeld  -the  probable  site  of  the  "  Hcrrmanschladl ;"  see  supra. 


l*)0  A  K  MI  X  11  i. 

"  Victory  or  Death  !"  began 

Then,  first,  tie  Roman  chief;  and  Herrman  spaka 
Not,  but  home-struck  :  the  eagles  fluttered — brake 
So  sped  the  second  day. 

TWO    CHORUSES. 

And  the  third  came  .  .  .  the  cry  was  "  Flight  or  Death  {** 
Flight  left  they  not  for  them  who'd  make  them  slaves- 
Men  who  stab  children  !  flight  fcr  them  !  .  . .  no  !  graves  f 
•'  'Twas  their  last  day." 

TWO    BARDS. 

Yet  spared  they  messengers  :  they  came  to  Rome — 
How  drooped  the  plume — the  lance  was  left  to  trail 
Down  in  the  dust  behind — their  cheek  was  pale — 
So  came  the  messengers  to  Rome. 

High  in  his  hall  the  impcrator  sat — 

Octavianus  Casar  Augustus  sat. 

They  filled  up  wine-cups,  wine-cups  filled  they  up 

For  him  the  highest — wine-cups  filled  they  up 

For  him  the  highest,  Jove  of  all  their  state. 

The  flutes  of  Lydia  hushed  before  their  voice, 
Before  the  messengers — the  "  Highest"  sprung— 
The  god*  against  the  marble  pillars,  wrung 
By  the  dread  words,  striking  his  brow,  and  thrice 
Cried  he  aloud  in  anguish,  "  Varus  I  Varus  ! 
Give  back  my  legions,  Varus  !" 

And  now  the  world-wide  conquerors  shrunk  and  feared 

For  fatherland  and  home, 

The  lance  to  raise  ;  and  'mongst  those  false  to  Rome 

The  death-lot  rolled, t  and  still  they  shrunk  and  feared  ; 

"  For  she  her  face  hath  turned 

The  victor  goddess,"  cried  those  cowards — (for  aye 

Be  it !) — "  from  Rome  and  Romans,  and  her  day 

Is  done" — and  still  be  mourned, 

And  cried  aloud  in  anguish,  "Varus  !  Varus  ! 

Give  back  my  legions,  Varus  !"t 

•  Augustus  was  worshiped  as  a  deity  in  his  lifetime, 
t  See  supra   p.  139. 

J  I  have  taLen  this  translation  ircm  an  anonvmous  writer  in  '  riuei 
two  yeirs  agr. 


SYNOPSIS    OP    EVENTS,    ETC.  Iftl 

i?yNOPSis  OP  Events  between  Arminius's  Victory  over  Va 
Rus  AND  the  Battle  of  Chalons. 

A.D.  43.  The  Romans  commence  the  conquest  of  Britain, 
Claudius  being  thou  Emperor  of  Rome.  The  population  of  this 
island  was  then  Celtic.  In  about  forty  years  all  the  tribes  south 
rf  the  Clyde  were  subdued,  and  their  land  made  a  Roman  prov- 
ini'o 

58-60.  Successful  campaigns  of  the  Roman  general  Corbulo 
against  the  Parthians. 

64.  First  persecution  of  the  Christians  at  Rome  under  Nero 

68-70.  Civil  wars  in  the  Roman  world.  The  Emperors  Ne- 
ro, Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  cut  oil'  successively  by  violent 
deaths.     Vespasian  becomes  emperor. 

70.  Jerusalem  destroyed  by  the  Romans  under  Titus. 

83.  Futile  attack  of  Domitian  on  the  Germans. 

86.  Beginning  of  the  wars  between  the  Romans  and  the  Da- 
cians. 

98—117.  Trajan  emperor  of  Rome.  Under  him  the  empire 
acquires  its  greatest  territorial  extent  by  his  conquests  in  Dacia 
and  in  the  East.  His  successor,  Hadrian,  abandons  the  prov 
inces  beyond  the  Euphrates  which  Trajan  had  conquered. 

138-180.  Era  of  the  Antonines. 

167—176.  A  long  and  desperate  war  between  Rome  and  a 
great  confederacy  of  the  German  nations.  Marcus  Antoninus 
at  last  succeeds  in  repelling  them. 

192—197.  Civil  wars  throughout  the  Roman  world.  Severug 
becomes  emperor.  He  relaxes  the  discipline  of  the  soldiers. 
After  his  death  in  211,  the  series  of  military  insurrections,  civil 
wars,  and  murders  of  emperors  recommences. 

226.  Artaxerxes  (Ardisheer)  overthrows  the  Parthian,  and  re- 
stores the  Persian  kingdom  in  Asia.  He  attacks  the  Roman  pos 
•essions  in  the  East. 

250.  The  Goths  invade  the  Roman  provinces.  The  Empcr;r 
Dccius  is  defeated  and  slain  by  them. 

253—260.  The  Franks  and  Alemanni  invade  Gaul,  Spain,  and 
Africa.  The  Goths  attack  Asia  Minor  and  Greece.  The  Per- 
sians conquer  Armenia.  Their  king,  Sapor,  defeats  the  Roman 
Emperor  Valerian,  and  takes  him  prisoner.  General  distress  ci 
the  Roman  empire. 


162  SYNOPSIS     OF     EVENTS,    ETC. 

268-283  Tne  Emperors  Olaudius,  Aurelian,  Tacitus,  I'robus, 
and  Cams  defeat  the  various  enemies  of  Rome,  and  restore  ordei 
in  the  Roman  state. 

285  Diocletian  divides  and  reorganizes  the  Roman  empir« 
After  his  abdication  in  305  a  fresh  series  of  civil  wars  and  con- 
fusion ensues.  Constantino,  the  first  Christian  emperor,  reumtea 
the  empire  in  324. 

330.  Constantine  makes  Constantinople  the  seat  of  empire  in 
Btead  of  Rome. 

363.  The  Emperor  Julian  is  killed  in  action  against  the  Per- 
sians. 

364-375.  The  empire  is  again  divided,  Valentinixn  being  Em 
peror  of  the  West,  and  Valens  of  the  East.  Valen^  inian  repulsea 
the  Alemanni,  and  other  German  invaders  from  Gi'.ul.  Splendor 
of  the  Gothic  kingdom  under  Hermanric,  north  o^  the  Danube. 

375—395.  The  Huns  attack  the  Goths,  who  ir'aplore  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Roman  emperor  of  the  East.  The  Goths  are  al- 
lowed to  pass  the  Danube,  and  to  settle  in  the  Roman  provinces. 
A  war  soon  breaks  out  between  them  and  the  Romans,  and  the 
Emperor  Valens  and  his  army  are  destroj^ed  by  them.  They 
ravage  the  Roman  territories.  The  Emperor  Theodosius  re- 
duces them  to  submission.  They  retain  settlements  in  Thrace 
and  Asia  Minor. 

395.  Final  division  of  the  Roman  empire  between  Arcadius 
and  Honorius,  the  two  sons  of  Theodosius.  The  Goths  revolt, 
and  under  Alaric  attack  various  parts  of  both  the  Roman  em- 
pires. 

410.  Alaric  takes  the  city  of  Rome. 

412.  The  Goths  march  into  Gaul,  and  in  414  into  Spain, 
which  had  been  invaded  by  hosts  of  Vandals,  Suevi,  Alani,  and 
other  Germanic  nations.  Britain  is  formally  abandoned  by  tha 
Roman  empire  of  the  West. 

428.  Gcnseric,  king  of  the  Vandals,  conquers  the  Roman  prov- 
ince of  North  Africa. 

441.  The  Huns  attack  Ihe  Eastern  empire. 


BATTLE     OF     CIItLONS.  IftS 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    CHALONS,   A.D.  451. 

The  discomfiture  of  the  mighty  attempt  of  Attila  to  fouiul  a  new  at.tl 
Christian  dynasty  upon  the  wreck  of  the  ten)poral  power  of  Rome,  at  the 
«nd  of  the  term  of  twelve  hundred  years,  to  which  its  duration  /lad  been 
limited  by  the  forebodings  of  the  heathen. — Herbert. 

A  BROAD  expanse  of  plains,  the  Campi  Catalaunici  of  the  an- 
cients, spreads  far  and  wide  around  the  city  of  Chalons,  in  the 
northeast  of  France.  The  long  rows  of  poplars,  through  which 
the  River  Mame  winds  its  waj%  and  a  few  thinly-scattered  vil- 
lages, are  almost  the  only  objects  that  vary  the  monotonous  as 
pect  of  the  greater  part  of  this  region.  But  about  five  miles  from 
Chalons,  near  the  little  hamlets  of  Chape  and  Cuperly,  the  ground 
is  indented  and  heaped  up  in  ranges  of  grassy  mounds  and  trench- 
es, which  attest  the  work  of  man's  hands  in  ages  past,  and  which, 
to  the  practiced  eye,  demonstrate  that  this  quiet  spot  has  once 
been  the  fortified  position  of  a  huge  rnilitaiy  host. 

Local  tradition  gives  to  these  ancien.*;  earth-works  the  name  of 
Attila's  Camp.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  question  the  correct- 
ness of  the  title,  or  to  doubt  that  behind  thes'e  very  ramparts  it 
was  that  1400  years  ago  the  most  powerful  heathen  king  that 
ever  niled  in  Europe  mustered  the  remamts  of  his  vast  army, 
which  had  striven  on  these  pla  ns  against  the  Christian  soldiery 
of  Thoulouse  and  Rome.  Here  it  was  that  Attila  prepared  to 
resist  to  the  death  his  victors  in  the  field  ;  and  here  he  heaped 
up  the  treasures  of  his  camp  iti  one  vast  pile,  which  M'as  to  be 
his  funeral  pyre  should  his  camp  be  stormed.  It  was  here  that 
the  Gothic  and  Italian  forces  watched,  but  dared  not  assail  theii 
enemy  in  liis  despair,  after  that  great  and  terrible  dav  of  battle 

when 

"  The  sound 
Of  conflict  was  o'erpast,  the  shout  of  all 
Whom  earth  could  send  from  her  remotest  bound*. 
Heathen  or  faithful ;  from  thy  hundred  mouths, 
That  feed  the  Caspian  with  Riphean  snows. 
Huge  Volga  !  from  famed  Hypanis,  which  once 
G  ? 


'64  BATTLEOFCHALCNS 

Cradled  the  Hun  ;  from  all  the  countless  realnci 
Between  Imaus  and  that  utmost  strand 
Where  columns  of  Herculean  rock  confront 
The  blown  Atlantic  ;  Roman,  Goth,  and  Hun, 
And  Scylhia*  strength  of  chivalry,  that  tread 
The  cold  Codanian  shore,  or  wliat  far  lands 
Inhospitas'jle  drink  Cimmerian  floods, 
Franks,  Saxons,  Suevic,  and  Sarmatian  chiefs, 
And  who  from  green  Armorica  or  Spain 
Flocked  to  the  work  of  death."* 

The  victory  which  the  Roman  general,  Aetius,  with  his  Uoth 
,c  alUes,  had  then  gained  over  the  Huns,  was  the  last  victory  of 
imperial  Rome.  But  among  the  long  Fasti  of  her  triumphs,  few 
can  he  found  that,  for  their  importance  and  ultimate  henefit  to 
mankind,  are  comparable  with  this  expiring  efibrt  of  her  arms 
It  did  not,  indeed,  open  to  her  any  new  career  of  conquest — it  did 
not  consolidate  the  relics  of  her  power — it  did  not  turn  the  rapid 
ebb  of  her  fortunes.  The  mission  of  imperial  Rome  was,  in  truth, 
already  accomplished.  She  had  received  and  transmitted  through 
her  once  ample  dominion  the  civilization  of  Greece.  She  had 
broken  up  the  barriers  of  narrow  nationalities  among  the  variou? 
states  and  tribes  that  dwelt  around  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. She  had  fused  these  and  many  other  races  into  one  organ- 
ized empire,  bound  together  by  a  community  of  laws,  of  govern- 
ment, and  institutions.  Under  the  shelter  of  her  full  power  the 
True  Faith  had  arisen  in  the  earth,  and  during  the  years  of  hei 
decline  it  had  been  nourished  to  maturity,  it  had  overspread  al 
the  provinces  that  ever  obeyed  her  sway.f  For  no  beneficial 
purpose  to  mankind  could  the  dominion  of  the  seven-hilled  city 
have  been  restored  or  prolonged.  But  it  was  all-important  to 
mankind  what  nations  should  divide  among  them  Rome's  rich 
inheritance  of  empire.  Whether  the  Germanic  and  Gothic  war- 
riors should  form  states  and  kingdoms  out  of  the  fragments  of  hei 
dominions,  and  become  tlie  free  members  of  tlie  commonwealth 
of  Christian  Europe ;  or  whether  pagan  savages,  from  the  wild* 
of  Central  Asia,  sho  Id  crush  the  relics  of  classic  civilization  anj 
the  early  institutions  "f  the  Christianized  Germans  in  one  hope- 
kss  chaos  ol'  barbaric  conquest.  The  Christ  ian  Visi<»r)ths  of  King 
Tlieodnric  fought  and  triumphed  at  Chalon*   side  by  side  with  th« 

♦  Herbert's  "  Attila,"  book  i.,  line  13. 

t  See  the  Introduction  to  Ranke's  "  History  of  the  Popes." 


BaT  r  LE     OF     C  H  A  LO  NS.  Ijtl 

legions  of  Aetius.  Their  joint  victory  over  the  Hunnish  host  not 
only  rescued  for  a  time  from  destruction  the  old  age  of  Rome,  but 
preserved  for  centuries  of  power  and  glory  the  Germanic  elemen' 
in  the  civilization  of  modern  Europe. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  full  importance  to  mankind  of  the  bat- 
i\3  of  Chalons,  we  must  keep  steadily  in  mind  who  and  what  the 
tiirmans  were,  and  the  important  distinctions  between  them  and 
the  numerous  other  races  that  assailed  the  Roman  empire  ;  and 
it  is  to  be  understood  that  the  Gothic  and  Scandinavian  nations 
are  included  in  the  German  race.  Now,  "  in  two  remarkable 
traitS;  the  Germans  difiered  from  the  Sarmatic  as  well  as  from 
the  Slavic  nations,  and,  indeed,  from  all  those  other  races  to 
whom  the  Greeks  and  Romans  gave  the  designation  of  barbari- 
ans. I  allude  to  their  personal  i'reedom  and  regard  for  the  rights 
of  men  ;  secondly,  to  the  respect  paid  by  them  to  the  female  sex, 
and  the  chastity  for  which  the  latter  were  celebrated  among  the 
people  of  the  North.  These  were  the  foundations  of  that  prob- 
ity of  character,  self-respect,  and  purity  of  manners  which  may 
be  traced  among  the  Germans  and  Goths  even  during  pagan 
times,  and  which,  when  their  sentiments  were  enlightened  by 
Christianity,  brought  out  those  splendid  traits  of  character  which 
distinguish  the  age  of  chivalry  and  romance."*  What  the  in- 
termixture of  the  German  stock  with  the  classic,  at  the  fall  of 
the  Western  empire,  has  done  for  mankind,  may  be  best  felt  by 
watching,  with  Arnold,  over  how  large  a  portion  of  the  earth 
the  influence  of  the  German  element  is  now  extended. 

"  It  afl'ects,  more  or  less,  the  whole  west  of  Europe,  from  the 
head  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  to  the  most  southern  promontory  of 
Sicily,  from  the  Oder  and  the  Adriatic  to  the  Hebrides  and  to 
Lisbon.  It  is  true  that  the  language  spoken  over  a  large  por- 
tion of  this  space  is  not  predominantly  German  ;  but  even  in 
France,  and  Italy,  and  Spain,  the  influence  of  the  Franks,  Bur 
gundians,  Visigoths,  Ostrogoths,  and  Lombards,  while  it  has  col- 
ored even  the  language,  has  in  blood  and  mstitutions  left  its  mark 
kgibly  and  indelibly.  Germany,  the  Low  Countries,  Switzer- 
land for  the  most  part,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  and  oui 
own  islands,  are  all  in  language,  in  blood,  and  in  intcitutions, 
German  most  decidedly.     But  all  South  America  is  peojded  with 

»  See  Prichard's  "Researches  into  the  Physical  History  of  Man,"  vil 
di.,  p.  423. 


156  BATTLE     OF     CHALONS. 

Spauiards  and  Portuguese  ;  all  North  America,  and  all  Australia^ 
with  Englishmen.  I  say  nothing  of  the  prospects  and  influence 
of  the  German  race  in  Africa  and  in  India  :  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  half  of  Europe,  and  all  America  and  Australia,  are  German, 
more  or  less  completely,  in  race,  in  language,  or  in  institutionx, 
or  in  all."*" 

By  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  Germanic  nations  had  set- 
fled  themselves  in  many  of  the  fairest  regions  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, had  imposed  their  yoke  on  the  provincials,  and  had  under- 
gone, to  a  considerahle  extent,  that  moral  conquest  which  the 
artr.  and  refinements  of  the  vanquished  in  arms  have  so  often 
achieved  over  the  rough  victor.  The  Visigoths  held  the  north 
of  Spain,  and  Gaul  south  of  the  Loire.  Franks,  Alemanni,  Alans, 
and  Burgundians  had  established  themselves  in  other  Gallic  prov- 
inces, and  the  Suevi  vi^ere  masters  of  a  large  southern  portion  of 
the  Spanish  peninsula.  A  king  of  the  Vandals  reigned  in  North 
Africa  ;  and  the  Ostrogoths  had  firmly  planted  themselves  in  the 
provinces  north  of  Italy.  Of  these  powers  and  principalities,  that 
of  the  Visigoths,  under  their  king  Theodoric,  son  of  Alaric,  Avas 
by  far  the  first  in  power  and  in  civilization. 

The  pressure  of  the  Huns  upon  Europe  had  first  been  felt  in 
the  fourth  century  of  our  era.  They  had  long  been  formidable 
to  the  Chinese  empire,  but  the  ascendency  in  arms  which  anotliei 
nomadic  tribe  of  Central  Asia,  the  Sienpi,  gained  over  them, 
drove  the  Huns  Irom  their  Chinese  conquest  westward  ;  and  this 
movement  once  being  coirmmnicated  to  the  whole  chain  of  bar- 
baric nations  that  dwelt  northward  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Ro- 
man empire,  tribe  after  tribe  of  savage  warriors  broke  in  upon 
the  barriers  of  civilized  Europe,  "  Velut  unda  supervenit  undam." 
The  Huns  crossed  the  Tanais  into  Europe  in  375,  and  rapidly  re- 
duced to  subjection  the  Alans,  the  Ostrogoths,  and  other  tribes 
that  were  then  dwelling  along  the  course  of  the  Danube.  The 
armies  of  the  Roman  emperor  that  tried  to  check  their  progress 
were  cut  to  pieces  by  them,  and  Pannonia  and  other  province! 
Bouth  of  the  Danube  were  speedily  occupied  by  the  victorous  cav 
ally  of  these  new  invaders.  Not  merely  tlie  degenerate  Roman-, 
but  the  bold  and  liardy  warriors  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia, 
were  appalled  at  the  number,  the  ferocity,  the  ghastly  appearance 
liud  the  lightning-like  rapidity  of  the  Huns.  Strange  aniJ  ^o^th 
•  Vinold's  "  Lt'clurps  on  Modern  History,"  p.  36. 


BATTLE     OF      :;  HAL  ON  B  157 

some  legends  wero  coined  and  credited,  which  allrlbuted  'hen 
origin  to  the  uu'on  of 

"  Secret,  black,  and  midnight  hags," 

with  the  evil  spirits  of  the  wilderness. 

Tribe  after  tribe,  and  city  after  city,  fell  before  them.  Then 
came  a  pause  in  their  career  of  conquest  in  southwestern  Euiopo, 
caused  probably  by  dissensions  among  their  chiefs,  and  also  by 
their  arms  being  employed  in  attacks  upon  the  Scandinavian  na- 
tions. But  when  Attila  (or  Atzel,  as  he  is  called  in  the  Hunga- 
rian language)  became  their  ruler,  the  torrent  of  their  arms  was 
directed  with  augmented  terrors  upon  the  west  and  the  south, 
and  their  myriads  marched  beneath  the  guidance  of  one  master- 
mind to  the  overthrow  both  of  the  new  and  the  old  powers  of  the 
earth. 

Recent  events  have  thrown  such  a  strong  interest  over  every 
thing  connected  with  the  Hungarian  name,  that  CA^en  the  terri- 
ble renown  of  Attila  now  impresses  us  the  more  vividly  through 
our  sympathizing  admiration  of  the  exploits  of  those  who  claim 
to  be  descended  from  his  warriors,  and  "  ambitiously  insert  the 
name  of  Attila  among  their  native  kings."  The  authenticity  of 
this  martial  genealogy  is  denied  by  some  writers  and  questioned 
by  more.  But  it  is  at  least  certain  that  the  Magyars  of  Arpad, 
who  are  the  immediate  ancestors  of  the  bulk  of  the  modern  Hun- 
garians, and  who  conquered  the  country  aa  hich  bears  the  name 
of  Hungary  in  A.D.  889,  were  of  the  same  stock  of  mankind  as 
were  the  Huns  of  Attila,  even  if  they  did  not  belong  to  the  same 
subdivision  of  that  stock.  Nor  is  there  any  improbability  in  the 
tradition  that  after  Attila's  death  many  of  his  warriors  remained 
in  Hungary,  and  that  their  descendants  afterward  joined  the  Huns 
of  Arpad  in  their  career  of  conquest.  It  is  certain  that  Attila 
made  Hungary  the  seat  of  his  empire.  It  seems  also  susceptible 
of  clear  proof  that  the  territory  was  then  called  Hungvar  and 
Attila's  soldiers  Hungvari.  Both  the  Huns  of  Attila  and  those 
of  Arpad  came  from  the  family  of  nomadic  nations  whose  primi- 
lire  ree'ioi.s  were  those  vast  wildernesses  of  High  Asia  which  are 
includf  d  between  the  Altaic  and  the  Himalayan  mountain  chains. 
The  inroads  of  these  tribes  upon  the  lower  regions  of  Asia  and 
•nto  Europe  have  caused  many  of  the  most  remarkable  revolu- 
Uontj  in  the  hirtoiy  of  the  world.     There  is  every  r'.'ason  lo  be 


1  {>fi  B  A  T  T  I-  i:     OF     C  H  A  L  C  V  S . 

lieve  that  swarms  of  these  nations  made  their  way  into  distant 
parts  of  the  earth,  at  periods  long  before  the  date  of  the  f^eythian 
invasion  of  Asia,  which  is  the  earhest  inroad  of  the  nomadic  race 
that  history  records.  The  first,  as  far  as  we  can  conjecture,  in 
respect  to  the  time  of  their  descent,  were  the  Finnisli  and  Ugrian 
tribes,  w^ho  appear  to  have  come  down  from  the  Altaic  border 
of  High  Asia  toward  the  northwest,  in  which  direction  they  ad- 
vanced to  the  Uralian  Mountains.  There  they  established  thon> 
selves ;  and  that  mountain  chain,  with  its  valleys  and  pasture 
lands,  became  to  them  a  new  country,  whence  they  sent  out  col- 
onies on  every  side  ;  but  the  Ugrian  colony,  which,  under  Arpad, 
occupied  Hungarj^  and  became  the  ancestors  of  the  bulk  of  the 
present  Hungarian  nation,  did  not  quit  their  settlements  on  the 
Uralian  Mountains  till  a  very  late  period,  and  not  until  four  cen- 
turies after  the  time  when  Attila  led  from  the  piimary  seats  of 
the  nomadic  races  in  High  Asia  the  host  with  which  he  advanced 
into  the  heart  of  France.*  That  host  was  Turkish,  but  closely 
allied  in  origin,  language,  and  habits  with  the  Fimio-Ugrian  set- 
tlers on  the  Ural. 

Attila's  fame  has  not  come  down  to  us  through  the  partial 
and  suspicious  medium  of  chroniclers  and  poets  of  his  own  race. 
It  is  not  from  Hunnish  authorities  that  we  learn  the  extent  of 
his  might :  it  is  from  his  enemies,  from  the  literature  and  the  le- 
gends of  the  nations  whom  he  afflicted  with  his  arms,  that  we 
draw  the  unquestionable  evidence  of  his  greatness.  Besides  the 
express  narratives  of  Byzantine,  Latin,  and  Gothic  writers,  we 
have  the  strongest  proof  of  the  stern  reality  of  Attila's  conquests 
in  the  extent  to  which  he  and  his  Huns  have  been  the  themes  of 
the  earliest  German  and  Scandinavian  lays.  Wild  as  many  of 
those  legends  are,  they  bear  concurrent  and  certain  testimony  to 
the  awe  with  which  the  memory  of  Attila  was  regarded  by  the 
bold  warriors  who  composed  and  delighted  in  them.  Attila's  ex- 
ploits, and  the  wonders  of  his  unearthly  steed  and  magic  sword, 
repeatedly  occur  in  the  Sagas  of  Norway  and  Iceland  ;  and  the 
celebrated  Niebelungen  Lied,  the  most  ancient  of  Germanic  po 
etry,  is  full  of  them.  There  Etsel,  or  Attila,  is  described  as  the 
wearer  of  twelve  mighty  crowns,  and  as  promising  to  his  bride 
the  lands  of  thirty  kings,  whom  his  ii'resistible  sword  hid  sub- 

♦   See   Frieliard's   "Researches   into  the   Physical    History  of  Man 


BATTLE     OF     CHALONS.  150 

dued.  He  is,  in  fact,  the  hero  of  the  latter  part  of  this  remark- 
able poem  ;  and  it  is  at  his  capital  city.  Etseleuburgh,  which  ev- 
idently corresponds  to  the  modern  Buda  that  mucli  of  its  action 
takes  place. 

When  we  turn  from  the  legendary  to  tlie  liistoric  Attila,  wo 
Bce  clearly  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  vulgar  herd  of  barbaric 
conquerors.  Consummate  military  skiU  may  be  traced  in  liia 
i^ampaigns  ;  and  he  relied  far  less  on  the  brute  force  of  armies 
[hi  the  aggrandizement  of  his  empire,  than  on  the  unbounded  in- 
fluence over  the  affections  of  friends  and  the  fears  of  foes  which 
his  genius  enabled  him  to  acquire.  Austerely  sober  in  his  private 
life — severely  just  on  the  judgment  seat — conspicuous  among  a 
nation  of  warriors  for  hardiliood,  strength,  and  skill  in  every  mar- 
tial exercise — grave  and  deliberate  in  counsel,  but  rapid  and  re- 
morseless in  execution,  he  gave  safety  and  security  to  all  who  were 
under  his  dominion,  while  he  waged  a  warfare  of  extermination 
against  all  who  opposed  or  sought  to  escape  from  it.  He  watch- 
ed the  national  passions,  the  prejudices,  the  creeds,  and  the  super- 
stitions of  the  varied  nations  over  which  he  ruled,  and  of  those 
which  he  sought  to  reduce  beiicath  his  sway  :  all  these  feelings  he 
had  the  skill  to  turn  to  his  own  account.  His  own  warriors  be- 
lieved liim  to  be  the  inspired  favorite  of  their  deities,  and  followed 
him  with  fanatic  zeal ;  his  enemies  looked  on  him  as  the  pre-ap- 
pointed  minister  of  heaven's  wrath  against  themselves ;  and  though 
they  beheved  not  in  his  creed,  their  own  made  them  tremble  be- 
fore him. 

In  one  of  his  early  campaigns  he  appeared  before  his  troops 
with  an  ancient  iron  sword  in  his  grasp,  which  he  told  them  was 
the  god  of  war  whom  their  ancestors  had  worshiped.  It  is  cer 
tain  that  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Northern  Asia,  whom  Herodotui; 
described  under  the  name  of  Scythians,  from  the  earliest  times 
worshiped  as  their  god  a  bare  sword.  That  sword-god  M'as  sup 
posed,  in  Attila's  time,  to  have  disappeared  from  earth  ;  but  tho 
Humush  king  now  claimed  to  have  I'eceived  it  by  special  revela 
tiou.  It  Avas  said  that  a  herdsman,  who  was  tracking  in  the  deS' 
crt  a  wounded  heifer  by  the  drops  of  blood,  found  the  mysterious 
»wc?d  standing  fixed  in  the  ground,  as  if  it  had  darted  down  from 
heaven.  The  herdsman  bore  it  to  Atiila,  who  thencefortl)  waa 
beheved  by  the  Huns  to  wield  the  Spirit  of  Death  in  battle  and 
their  seers  prophesied  that  that  sword  was  to  destroy  the  world 


lew  BATTLE     OF     CHALONS. 

A  Roman,*  who  was  on  an  embassj  to  the  Hunnish  camp,  record 
p(l  in  his  memoirs  Attila's  acouisition  of  this  supernatural  weapon, 
and  the  immense  iiifluence  over  Ihe  minds  ot"  the  ba.rbaric  tribes 
which  its  possession  gave  him.  In  the  title  which  he  assumbd 
we  shall  see  th'i  siciU  with  which  he  availed  himself  of  the  legends 
and  cr'^ods  of  other  nations  as  well  as  of  his  own.  He  designated 
iumself  "  Attila,  Descendant  of  the  Great  Nimrod.  Nurtured 
iu  Engaddi.  By  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  the  Huns,  the  Goths, 
the  Danes,  and  the  Medes.     The  Dread  of  the  World." 

Herbert  states  that  Attila  is  represented  on  an  old  medallion 
with  a  Teraphim,  or  a  head,  on  his  breast ;  and  the  same  writer 
adds,  "  We  know,  from  the  '  Hamartigenea'  of  Prudentius,  that 
Nimrod,  with  a  snaky-haired  head,  was  the  object  of  adoration 
of  the  heretical  followers  of  Marcion  ;  and  the  same  head  was 
the  palladium  set  up  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  over  the  gates  of 
Antioch,  though  it  has  been  called  the  visage  of  Charon.  The 
memorj^  of  Nimrod  was  certainly  regarded  with  mystic  veneration 
by  many  ;  and  by  asserting  himself  to  be  the  heir  of  that  mighty 
Jmnter  before  the  Lord,  he  vindicated  to  himself  at  least  the 
M'hole  Babylonian  kingdom. 

"  The  singular  assertion  in  his  style,  that  he  was  nurtured  in 
Engaddi,  where  he  certainly  had  never  been,  will  be  more  easily 
understood  on  reference  to  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Book  of 
Revelations,  concerning  the  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  who 
was  to  bring  forth  in  the  wilderness — '  where  she  hath  a  place 
prepared  of  God' — a  man-child,  who  was  to  contend  with  the 
dragon  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  and  rule  all  nations 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  This  prophecy  was  at  that  time  understood 
universally  by  the  sincere  Christians  to  refer  to  the  birth  of  Con 
Btantine,  who  was  to  overwhelm  the  paganism  of  the  city  on  the 
seven  hills,  and  it  is  still  so  explained  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the 
heathens  must  have  looked  on  it  in  a  different  light,  and  have 
regarded  it  as  a  foretelling  of  the  birth  of  that  Great  One  who 
should  master  the  temporal  power  of  Rome.  The  assertion, 
therefore,  that  he  was  nurtured  in  Engaddi,  is  a  claim  to  be 
looked  upon  as  that  man-child  who  was  to  be  brought  forth  in  a 
place  prepared  of  God  in  the  wilderness.  Engaddi  means  a 
plac3  of  palms  and  vines  in  the  desert  ;  it  was  hard  by  Zoar,  the 
fity  of  refug(!,  whi<  h  was  saved  ir  the  Vale  of  Siddim,  or  Demon&i 
•  Priacus  apud  Jornajndem 


iSATTLE     OF     CHALONS.  J(ji 

when  the  rest  were  destroyed  by  fire  and  briinsto.io  fiom  the 
Lord  ill  heaven,  and  might,  therefore,  be  especially  called  a  place 
prepared  of  God  in  the  wilderness." 

It  is  obvious  enough  why  he  styled  himself  "  By  the  Grace  of 
God,  King  of  the  Huns  and  Goths  ;"  and  it  seems  far  from  diffi- 
cult to  see  why  he  added  the  names  of  the  Medes  and  the  Dane? 
His  armies  liad  been  engaged  in  warfare  against  the  Persian 
Kingdom  of  the  Sassanida;,  and  it  is  certain*  that  he  meditated 
the  invasion  and  overthrow  of  the  Medo-Persian  power.  Proba- 
bly some  of  the  northern  provinces  of  that  kingdom  had  been 
compelled  to  pay  him  tribute  ;  and  this  would  account  for  his 
Btyling  himself  King  of  the  Medes,  they  being  his  remotest  sub- 
•ects  to  the  south.  From  a  similar  cause,  he  may  have  called 
nimself  King  of  the  Danes,  as  his  power  may  well  have  extend- 
ed northward  as  far  as  the  nearest  of  the  Scandinavian  nations  , 
and  this  mention  of  Medes  and  Danes  as  his  subjects  would  servo 
at  once  to  indicate  the  vast  extent  of  his  dominion.! 

The  immense  territory  north  of  the  Danube  and  Black  Sea 
and  eastward  of  Caucasus,  over  which  Attila  ruled,  first  in  con- 
junction with  his  brother  Bleda,  and  afterward  alone,  can  not 
be  very  accurately  defined,  but  it  must  have  comprised  within 
it,  l)esides  the  Huns,  many  nations  of  Slavic,  Gothic,  Teutonic, 
and  Finnish  origin.  South  also  of  the  Danube,  the  country,  from 
the  River  Sau  as  far  as  Novi  in  Thrace,  was  a  Hunnish  prov- 
ince. Such  was  the  empire  of  the  Huns  in  A.D.  445  ;  a  mem- 
orable  year,  in  which  Attila  founded  Buda  on  the  Danube  as  his 
capital  city,  and  ridded  himself  of  his  brother  by  a  crime  wliich 
seems  to  have  been  prompted  not  only  by  selfish  ambition,  but 
also  by  a  desire  of  turning  to  his  purpose  the  legends  and  fore- 
bodings which  then  were  universally  spread  throughout  the  Ro- 
man empire,  and  must  have  been  aacII  known  to  the  watchful 
and  ruthless  Hun. 

The  year  445  of  our  era  completed  the  twelfth  century  from 
the  foundation  of  Rome,  according  to  the  best  chronologers.  It 
had  always  been  believed  among  the  Romans  that  the  twelve 

*  See  the  narrative  of  Priscus. 

t  In  tlie  "  Niebelungen  Lied,"  the  old  poet  vpho  describes  the  reception 
of  the  lieroine  Chrimhild  by  Attila  [Etsel],  says  that  Attila's  dominion* 
were  so  vast,  that  among  his  subject- warriors  there  were  Russian,  Greek, 
Wallachian,  Polish,  and  even  Danish  knights. 


102  BATTLE      OF      JHALONj. 

vultures,  which,  were  said  to  have  appeared  to  Uomulus  whas 
he  founded  the  city,  signified  the  time  during  which  the  Roman 
power  should  endure.      The  twelve  vultures  denoted  twelve  cen 
turies.     This  interpretation  of  the  vision  of  the  birds  of  destiny 
was  current  among  learned  Romans,  even  when  there  were  yet 
many  of  the  twelve  centuries  to  run,  and  while  the  imperial  city 
was  at  the  zenith  of  its  power.     But  as  the  allotted  time  drew 
uearer  and  nearer  to  its  conclusion,  and  as  Rome  grew  weaker        ' 
and  weaker  beneath  the  blows  of  barbaric  invaders,  the  terrible 
omen  was  more  and  more  talked  and  thought  of;   and  iu  Attila's 
time,  men  watched  for  the  momentary  extinction  of  the  Roman 
state  with  the  last  beat  of  the  last  vulture's  wing.     Moreover, 
among  the  numerous  legends  connected  with  the  foundation  of 
the  city,  and  the  fratricidal  deatVi  of  Remus,  there  was  one  most 
terrible  one,  which  told  that  Romulus  did  not  put  his  brother  t.o 
death  in  accident  or  in  hasty  quarrel,  but  that 
"  He  slew  his  gallant  twin 
With  inexpiable  sin," 
deliberately,  and  in  compliance  with  the  warnings  of  supernat- 
ural powers.     The  shedding  of  a  brother's  blood  was  believed  to 
have  been  the  price  at  which  the  founder  of  Rome  had  purchased 
from  destiny  her  twelve  centuries  of  existence.* 

We  may  imagine,  therefore,  with  what  terror  in  this,  the 
twelve  hundredth  year  after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Roman  empire  must  have  heard  the  tidings  that  the 
royal  brethren,  Attila  and  Bleda,  had  founded  a  new  capital  on 
the  Danube,  which  was  designed  to  rule  over  the  ancient  capital 
on  the  Tiber  ;  and  that  Attila,  like  Romulus,  had  consecrated  the 
foundations  of  his  new  city  by  murdering  his  brother  ;  so  that 
i'or  the  new  cycle  of  centuries  then  about  to  commence,  dominion 
had  been  bought  from  the  gloomy  spirits  of  destiny  in  favor  of 
the  Hun  by  a  sacrifice  of  equal  awe  and  value  with  that  which 
had  formerly  obtained  it  for  the  Roman 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  not  only  the  pagans,  but  also  the 
Christians  of  that  age,  knew  and  believed  in  these  legends  and 
omens,  however  they  might  difi'er  as  to  the  nature  of  the  super- 
human agency  by  which  such  mysteries  had  been  made  known 

♦  See  a  curious  justification  of  Attila  for  murdering  his  brother,  by  a 
tcaloiis  Hungarian  advocate,  in  the  note  to  Pray's  "  Annales  flunnoriim,'' 
.»  117.     'I'lie  example  of  Romulus  is  the  mam  authority  (juoJed. 


-BATTLE     OF     CHALONS.  163 

■»  mankind.  And  we  may  observe,  with  Herbert,  a  uiodern 
learned  dignitary  of  our  church,  how  remarkably  this  augury  waa 
fulfilled  ;  for  "  if  to  the  twelve  centuries  denoted  by  the  twelve 
vultures  that  appeared  to  Romulus,  we  add  for  the  six  birds  that 
appeared  to  Rorims  six  lustra,  or  periods  of  five  years  each,  b} 
•which  the  Romans  were  wont  to  number  their  time,  it  biings  ua 
precisely  to  the  year  476,  in  which  the  Roman  empire  was  finally 
exUnguished  by  Odoacer." 

An  attempt  to  assassinate  Attila,  made,  or  supposed  to  hav*» 
been  made,  at  the  instigation  of  Theodoric  the  younger,  the  Em- 
peror of  Constantinople,  drew  the  Ilunnish  armies,  in  445,  upon 
the  Eastern  empire,  and  delayed  for  a  time  the  destined  blow 
against  Rome.  Probably  a  more  important  cause  of  delay  was 
the  revolt  of  some  of  the  Hunnish  tribes  to  the  north  of  the  Black 
Sea  against  Attila,  which  broke  out  about  this  period,  and  is  cur- 
sorily mentioned  by  the  Byzantine  Avriters.  Attila  quelled  this 
revolt,  and  having  thus  consolidated  his  power,  and  having  pun 
ished  the  presumption  of  the  Eastern  Roman  emperor  by  fearlul 
ravages  of  his  fairest  provinces,  Attila,  in  450  A.D.,  prepared  to 
set  his  vast  forces  in  motion  for  the  conquest  of  Western  Europe. 
He  sought  unsuccessfully  by  diplomatic  intrigues  to  detach  the 
King  of  the  Visigoths  from  his  alliance  with  Rome,  and  he  re- 
solved first  to  crush  the  power  of  Theodoric,  and  then  to  advance 
with  overwhelming  power  to  trample  out  the  last  sparks  of  thp 
doomed  Roman  empire. 

A  strange  invitation  from  a  Roman  princess  gave  him  a  pre 
text  for  the  war,  and  threw  an  air  of  chivalric  enterprise  over  his 
invasion.  Honoria,  sister  of  Valentinian  III.,  the  Emperor  of  the 
West,  had  sent  to  Attila  to  offer  him  her  hand  and  her  supposed 
right  to  share  in  the  imperial  power.  This  had  been  discovered 
by  the  Romans,  and  Honoria  had  been  forthwith  closely  impris- 
oned. Attila  now  pretended  to  take  up  arms  in  behalf  of  his 
Belfpromised  bride,  and  proclaimed  that  he  was  about  to  march 
♦o  Rome  to  redress  Honoria's  wrongs.  Ambition  and  spite  against 
hftr  brother  must  have  been  the  sole  motives  that  led  the  lady 
tc  TToo  the  royal  Hun  ;  for  Attila's  face  and  person  had  all  the 
nataral  ugliness  of  his  race,  and  the  description  given  of  him  by 
a  Byzantine  embassador  must  have  been  well  known  in  the  im- 
perial courts.  Herbert  has  well  versified  the  portrait  drawn  by 
Priscus  of  the  great  enemy  of  both  Byzantium  and  Rome  : 


1 64  battleofchalons 

"Terrii. 3  was  his  semblance,  in  no  mold 
Of  beautiful  proportion  cast ;  his  limbs 
Nothing  exalted,  but  viith  sinews  braced 
Of  Chalybcean  temper,  agile,  lithe, 
And  swifter  than  the  roe  ;  his  ample  chest 
Was  overbrovv'd  by  a  gigantic  head, 
With  eyes  keen,  deeply  sunk,  and  small,  that  gleaai'd 
Strangely  in  wrath  as  though  some  spirit  unclean 
Within  that  corporal  tenement  install'd 
Look'd  from  its  windows,  but  with  temper'd  fire 
Beam'd  mildly  on  the  unresisting.     Thin 
His  beard  and  hoary  ;  his  flat  nostrils  crown'd 
A  cicatrized,  swart  visage  ;  but,  withal, 
That  questionable  shape  such  glory  wore 
That  mortals  quail'd  beneath  him." 

Two  chiefs  of  the  Franks,  who  were  then  settled  on  the  Lo'w- 
er  Rhine,  were  at  this  period  engaged  in  a  feud  with  each  other; 
and  while  one  of  them  appealed  to  the  Romans  for  aid,  the  other 
invoked  the  assistance  and  protection  of  the  Huns.  Attila  thus 
obtained  an  ally  whose  co-operation  secured  for  him  the  passage 
of  the  Rhine,  and  it  was  this  circumstance  which  caused  him  to 
take  a  northward  route  from  Hungary  for  his  attack  upon  Gaul. 
The  muster  of  the  Hunnish  hosts  was  swollen  by  warriors  of  ev- 
ery tribe  that  they  had  subjugated  ;  nor  is  there  any  reason  to 
euspect  the  old  chroniclers  of  willful  exaggeration  in  estimating 
A.ttila's  army  at  seven  hundred  thousand  strong.  Having  crossed 
the  Rhine  probably  a  little  below  Coblentz,  he  defeated  the  King 
of  the  Burgutidians,  who  endeavored  to  bar  his  progress.  He 
then  divided  his  vast  forces  into  two  armies,  one  of  which  marched 
northwest  upon  Tongres  and  Arras,  and  the  other  cities  of  that 
part  of  France,  while  the  main  body,  under  Attila  himself,  ad- 
vanced up  the  Moselle,  and  destroyed  Besanfon,  and  other  towns 
in  the  country  of  the  Burgundians.  One  of  the  latest  and  best 
biographers  of  Attila*  well  observes,  that,  "  having  thus  con- 
quered the  eastern  part  of  France,  Attila  prepared  for  an  inva- 
gion  of  the  West  Gothic  territories  beyond  the  Loii'e.  He  mai'ched 
upon  Orleans,  where  he  intended  to  force  the  passage  of  tliat  riv- 
er, and  only  a  little  attention  is  requisite  to  enable  us  to  perctive 
that  he  proceeded  on  a  systematic  plan  :  he  had  his  right  wing 
on  the  north  for  the  protection  of  his  Frank  allies  ;  his  left  wing 

*  Biographical  Dictionary  commenced  by  the  Useful  Knowledge  Soei 
«tv  in  1844. 


BATTLE     OF     C  H  A  L  O  N  6.1j08  A^gei^i  ^     '  16J 

OH  the  south  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  Burgandians  from 
rallying,  and  of  menacing  the  passes  of  the  Alps  from  Italy  ;  and 
he  led  his  centre  towrd  the  chief  object  of  the  campaign — the 
conquest  of  Orleans,  and  an  easy  passage  into  the  West  Gothic 
dominion.  The  whole  plan  is  very  like  that  of  the  allied  powers 
in  1814,  with  this  dill'erence,  that  their  left  wing  entered  France 
through  the  defiles  of  the  Jura,  in  the  direction  of  Lyons,  and  that 
the  military  object  of  the  campaign  Avas  the  capture  of  Paris." 

It  was  not  until  the  year  451  that  the  Huns  commenced  the 
siege  of  Orleans;  and  during  their  campaign  in  Eastern  Gaul, 
the  Roman  general  Aetius  had  strenuously  exerted  himself  in  col- 
lecting and  organizing  such  an  army  as  might,  when  united  to 
the  soldiery  of  the  Visigoths,  be  fit  to  face  the  Huns  in  the  field. 
He  enlisted  every  subject  of  the  Roman  empire  whom  patriotism, 
courage,  or  compulsion  could  collect  beneath  the  standards  ;  and 
round  these  troops,  which  assumed  the  once  proud  title  of  the 
legions  of  Rome,  he  arrayed  the  large  forces  of  barbaric  auxilia- 
ries, whom  pay,  persuasion,  or  the  general  hate  and  dread  of  the 
Huns  brought  to  the  camp  of  the  last  of  the  Roman  generals. 
King  Theodoric  exerted  himself  with  equal  energy.  Orleans 
resisted  her  besiegers  bravely  as  in  after  times.  .  The  passage 
of  the  Loire  was  skillfully  defended  against  the  Huns  ;  and  Ae- 
tius and  Theodoric,  after  much  maneuvering  and  difficulty,  ef- 
fected a  junction  of  their  armies  to  the  south  of  that  important 
river. 

On  the  advance  of  the  allies  upon  Orleans,  Attila  instantly 
broke  up  the  siege  of  that  city,  and  retreated  toward  the  Marne 
He  did  not  choose  to  risk  a  decisive  battle  with  only  the  central 
corps  of  his  army  against  the  combined  power  of  his  enemies, 
and  he  therefore  fell  back  upon  his  base  of  operations,  calhng  in 
his  wings  from  Arras  and  Besan^on,  and  concentrating  the  whole 
of  the  Hunnish  forces  on  the  vast  plains  of  Chalons-sur-Marne. 
A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  how  scientifically  this  place  was 
chosen  by  the  Hunnish  general  as  the  point  for  his  scattered  forces 
to  converge  upon  ;  and  the  nature  of  the  ground  was  eminently 
favorable  for  the  operations  of  cavalry,  the  arm  in  which  Attila'a 
strength  pecunarly  lay. 

It  was  dm"ing  the  retreat  from  Orleans  that  a  Christian  her- 
mit is  reported  to  have  approached  the  Hunnish  king,  and  said 
to  him,  ''  Thou  art  the  Scourge  of  God  for  the  chastisement  oi 


lb6  B  A  T  T  I.  E     O  F     C  II  A  L  O  X  =. 

the  ChriBliaiis."  Attila  instantly  aspumed  this  ik.w  title  of  ler 
ror,  which  thenceforth  became  the  appellation  by  which  lie  wai 
most  widely  and  most  fearfully  known. 

The  confederate  armies  of  Romans  and  Visigoths  at  last  met 
their  great  aJversaiy  face  to  face  on  the  ample  battle-gi  vmd  of 
the  Chalons  plains.  Aetius  commanded  on  the  right  of  the  al- 
lies ;  King  Theodoric  on  the  left  ;  and  Sangipan,  king  of  the 
Alans,  whose  fidelity  was  suspected,  was  placed  purposely  in  tha 
centre,  and  in  the  very  front  of  the  battle.  Attila  commanded 
his  centre  in  person,  at  the  head  of  his'  own  countrymen,  while 
the  Ostrogotlis,  the  Gepidaj,  and  the  other  subject  allies  of  the 
Huns  were  drawn  up  on  the  wings.  Some  maneuvering  appears 
to  have  occurred  before  the  engagement,  in  which  Aetius  had 
the  advantage,  inasmuch  as  he  succeeded  in  occupying  a  sloping 
hill,  which  commanded  the  left  flank  of  the  Huns.  Attila  saw 
the  importance  of  the  position  taken  by  Aetius  on  the  high  ground, 
and  commenced  the  battle  by  a  furious  attack  on  this  part  of  the 
Roman  hne,  in  which  he  seems  to  have  detached  some  of  hin 
best  troops  from  his  centre  to  aid  his  left.  The  Romans,  having 
the  advantage  of  the  ground,  repulsed  the  Huns,  and  while  the 
allies  gained  this  advantage  on  their  right,  their  left,  under  King 
Theodoric,  assailed  the  Ostrogoths,  who  formed  the  right  of  At- 
tila's  army.  The  gallant  king  was  himself  struck  down  by  a 
javelin,  as  he  rode  onward  at  the  head  of  his  men  ;  and  his  own 
cavalry,  charging  over  him,  trampled  him  to  death  in  the  con- 
fusion. But  the  Visigoths,  infuriated,  not  dispirited,  by  their 
monarch's  fall,  routed  the  enemies  opposed  to  them,  and  then 
wheeled  upon  the  flank  of  the  Hunnish  centre,  which  had  been 
engaged  in  a  sanguinary  and  indecisive  contest  with  the  Alans. 

In  this  peril  Attila  made  his  centre  fall  back  upon  his  camp  ; 
and  when  the  shelter  of  its  intrenchmcnts  and  wagons  had  once 
been  gained,  the  Hunnish  archers  repulsed,  without  difficulty,  the 
charges  of  the  vengeful  Gothic  cavalry.  Aetius  had  not  pressed 
the  advantage  which  he  gained  on  his  side  of  the  field,  and  when 
night  fell  over  the  wild  scene  of  havoc,  Attila's  left  was  still  un 
defeated,  but  his  right  had  been  routed,  and  his  centre  forced  back 
upon  his  camp. 

Expecting  an  assault  on  the  morrow,  Attila  stationed  his  best 
archers  in  front  of  the  cars  and  wagons,  which  were  drawn  up 
as  a  fortification  along  his  lines,  and  made  every  preparation  for 


BATTLE     OF     CHALONS.  107 

&  desperate  lislstance.  But  the  *'  Scourge  of  God"  resolved  that 
no  man  should  hoast  of  the  honor  of  having  either  captured  or 
slain  him,  aud  he  caused  to  be  raised  in  the  centre  of  his  en- 
campment a  huge  pyramid  of  the  wooden  saddles  of  his  cavalry  : 
round  it  he  heaped  the  spoils  and  the  wealth  that  he  had  won  ; 
on  it  he  stationed  his  wives  who  had  accompanied  him  in  the 
campaign  ;  and  on  the  summit  Attila  placed  himself,  ready  to 
perish  in  the  flames,  and  balk  the  victorious  foe  of  their  choicest 
booty,  ehould  they  succeed  in  storming  his  defenses. 

But  when  the  morning  broke  and  revealed  the  extent  of  the 
carnage  with  which  the  plains  were  heaped  for  miles,  the  success- 
ful allies  saw  also  and  respected  the  resolute  attitude  of  their  an- 
tagonist. Neither  were  any  measures  taken  to  blockade  him  in 
his  camp,  and  so  to  extort  by  famine  that  submission  which  it 
was  too  plainly  perilous  to  enforce  with  the  sword.  Attila  was 
allowed  to  march  back  the  remnants  of  his  army  without  molest- 
ation, and  even  with  the  semblance  of  success. 

It  is  probable  that  the  crafty  Aetius  was  unwilling  to  be  too 
victorious.  He  dreaded  the  glory  which  his  allies  the  Visigoths 
had  acquired,  and  feared  that  Rome  might  find  a  second  A.laric 
in  Prince  Thorismund,  who  had  signalized  himself  in  the  battle, 
and  had  been  chosen  on  the  field  to  succeed  his  father  Theodoric. 
He  persuaded  the  young  king  to  return  at  once  to  his  capital,  and 
thus  relieved  himself  at  the  same  time  of  the  presence  of  a  dan- 
gerous  friend,  as  well  as  of  a  formidable  though  beaten  foe. 

At  fill's  attacks  on  the  Western  empire  were  soon  renewed,  but 
never  with  such  peril  to  the  civilized  world  as  had  menaced  it 
before  his  defeat  at  Chalons  ;  and  on  his  death  two  years  after 
that  battle,  the  vast  empire  which  his  genius  had  founded  waa 
soon  dissevered  by  the  successful  revolts  of  the  subject  nations 
The  name  of  the  Huns  ceased  for  some  centuries  to  inspire  terror 
hi  Western  Europe,  and  their  ascendency  passed  away  with  the 
life  of  the  great  king  by  whom  it  had  been  so  fearfully  aug- 
mented.* 

•  If  I  seem  to  have  given  fewer  of  the  details  of  the  battle  itself  than 
its  importance  would  warrant,  my  excuse  must  be,  that  Gibbon  has  en- 
riched our  language  with  a  description  of  it,  too  long  for  quotation  and  too 
splendid  for  rivalrv  I  have  not,  however,  taken  altogether  the  same  view 
of  it  that  he  has.  The  notes  to  Mr.  Herbert's  poem  of  "  Attila  '  bring  to 
gether  nearly  all  the  authorities  on  the  8ubje<'t. 


168  SVNuP&lfe     Of     EVENTS,     ETC. 

SYNofSTS  OF  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Ciial:in«,  A  1) 
451,  AND  THE  Battle  of  Tours,  A.D.  732. 

A.D.  476.  The  Roman  empire  of  the  West  extinguished  fcj 
Odoacer. 

481.  Establishment  of  the  French  monarchy  in  Gaul  by  Ciovia. 

455-592.  The  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Frisians  conquer  Britain, 
except  the  northern  parts  and  the  districts  along  the  west  coast. 
The  German  conquerors  found  eight  independent  kingdoms. 

533—568.  The  generals  of  Justinian,  the  Emperor  of  Constan 
tinople,  conquer  Italy  and  North  Africa  ;  and  these  countries  are 
for  a  short  time  annexed  to  the  Roman  empire  of  the  East. 

568-570.  The  Lombards  conquer  great  part  of  Italy. 

570-627.  The  wars  between  the  emperors  of  Constantinople 
and  the  kings  of  Persia  are  actively  continued. 

622.  The  Mohammedan  era  of  the  Hegira.  Mohammed  u 
driven  from  Mecca,  and  is  received  as  prince  of  Medina. 

629-632.  Mohammed  conquers  Arabia. 

632—651.  The  Mohammedan  Arabs  invade  and  conquer  I'ersniL 

632-709.  They  attack  the  Roman  empire  of  the  East,  Thej 
conquer  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Africa. 

709-713.  They  croai  the  Strait§  of  Gibraltar,  and  inTftde  nuL 
aoaquer  Spain. 


BATTLE     OF     TOUr.S.  'if 


CHAPTER  Vll. 

THE    BATT'^.E    OF    TOURS,  A.D.  732 

The  events  that  rescued  our  ancestors  of  Britain  and  our  neighbors  ol 
'aul  from  the  civil  and  relijjicus  yoke  of  tlie  Koran. — Gibbon. 

The  broad  tract  of  cliampaign  country  which  intervenes  be- 
tween the  cities  of  Poictiers  and  Tours  is  principally  composed  of 
a  succession  of  rich  pastu>-e  lands,  which  are  traversed  and  fertil- 
ized by  the  Cher,  the  Creyge,  the  Vienne,  the  Claine,  the  Indre, 
and  other  tributaries  of  the  River  Loire.  Here  and  there  the 
ground  swells  into  pictui-iaque  eminences,  and  occasionally  a  belt 
of  forest  land,  a  brown  heath,  or  a  clustering  series  of  vineyards 
breaks  the  monotony  of  the  widespread  meadows  ;  but  the  gen- 
eral character  of  the  land  is  that  of  a  grassy  plain,  and  it  seems 
naturally  adapted  for  the  evolutions  of  numerous  armies,  especially 
of  those  vast  bodies  of  cavalry  which  principally  decided  the  fate 
of  nations  during  the  centuries  that  followed  the  downfall  of  Rome, 
and  preceded  the  consohdation  of  the  modern  European  powers. 

This  region  has  been  signalized  by  more  than  one  memorable 
conflict ;  but  it  is  principally  interesting  to  the  historian  by  hav- 
ing been  the  scene  of  the  great  victory  won  by  Charles  Martel 
over  the  Saracens,  A  D.  732,  which  gave  a  decisive  check  to  the 
career  of  Arab  conquest  in  Western  Europe,  rescued  Christendom 
from  Islam,  preserved  the  relics  of  ancient  and  the  germs  of  mod- 
ern civilization,  and  re-established  the  old  superiority  of  the  Indo- 
European  over  the  Semitic  family  of  mankind. 

Sismondi  and  Michelet  have  underrated  the  enduring  interest 
of  tliis  great  Appeal  of  Battle  between  the  champions  of  the  Cies- 
cout  and  the  Cross.  But,  if  French  writers  have  slighted  the  ex- 
ploits of  their  national  hero,  the  Saracenic  trophies  of  Charles 
Martel  have  had  full  justice  done  to  them  by  English  and  Ger- 
man historians.     Gibbon  devotes  several  pages  of  his  great  work* 

*  Vol.  vii  ,  p.  17,  et  scq.  Gibbon's  sneering  remark,  that  if  the  Saracen 
conquests  had  not  then  been  checked,  "  perhaps  the  interpretation  of  the 
Koran  would  now  be  taught  in  the  sehooife  of  Oxford,  and  her  pn)pitir 

H 


170  BATTLE     OF     TOURS. 

to  the  narrative  of  the  battle  of  Tours,  and  to  thti  consideration  jf 
the  consequences  which  probably  would  have  resulted  if  Atder- 
rahinan's  enterprise  had  not  been  crushed  by  the  Frankish  chief. 
Schlegel*  speaks  of  this  "  mighty  victory"  in  terms  of  fervent 
gratitude,  anc"  teUs  how  "  the  arm  of  Charles  Martel  saved  -snd 
delivered  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West  from  the  deadly  gitu-p 
of  aU-destroying  Islam  ;"  and  E-ankef  points  out,  as  "  one  of  the 
most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the  commence 
ment  of  the  eighth  century,  when  on  the  one  side  Mohammedan- 
ism threatened  to  overspread  Italy  and  Gaul,  and  on  the  other  the 
ancient  idolatry  of  Saxony  and  Friesland  once  more  forced  its  way 
across  the  Rhine.  In  this  peril  of  Christian  institutions,  a  youth- 
ful prince  of  Germanic  race,  Karl  MarteU,  arose  as  their  cham- 
pion, maintained  them  with  aU  the  energy  which  the  necessity  for 
self-defense  calls  forth,  and  finally  extended  them  into  new  re- 
gions." 

Amoldl  ranks  the  victory  of  Charles  Martel  even  higher  than 
the  victory  of  Arminius,  "  among  those  signal  deliverances  which 
have  affected  for  centuries  the  happiness  of  mankind."  In  fact, 
the  more  we  test  its  importance,  the  higher  we  shall  be  led  to  es- 
timate it ;  and,  though  all  authentic  details  which  we  possess  of 
its  circumstances  and  its  heroes  are  but  meagre,  we  can  trace 
enough  of  its  general  character  to  make  us  watch  with  deep  in- 
terest this  encounter  between  the  rival  conquerors  of  the  decaying 
Roman  empire.  That  old  classic  world,  the  history  of  which  oc- 
cupies so  large  a  portion  of  our  early  studies,  lay,  in  the  eighth 
centurj'  of  our  era,  utterly  exanimate  and  oA^erthrown.  On  the 
north  the  German,  on  the  south  the  Arab,  was  rending  a"way  its 
provinces.  At  last  the  spoilers  encountered  one  another,  each 
striving  for  the  full  mastery  of  tlie  prey.  Their  conflict  brouglit 
back  upon  the  memory  of  Gibbon  the  old  Homeric  simile,  where 
the  strife  of  Hector  and  Patroclus  over  the  dead  body  of  Ccbriones 
is  compared  to  the  corabat  of  two  lions,  that  in  their  hate  ami 
hunger  fight  together  on  the  mountain  tops  over  the  carcass  of  a 
slaughtered  stag  ;  and  the  reluctant  yielding  of  the  Saracen  pow- 

mighl  dcmonstiate  to  a  circumcised  people  liie  sanctity  and  truth  of  ttie 
revelation  of  Mdjiamined,"  has  almost  an  air  of  regie*. 

•   "  Pliil()so|)i)y  of  History,"  p.  331. 

t  ''History  oftiie  Reformation  in  Germany,"  vol.  i  ,  p.  5. 

t  "History  of  the  later  Roman  Commonwealth."   •ol   ii.,  p.  817- 


I 


SA  TTLE     OF     TOURS.  17  i 

ir  lo  the  superior  might  of  the  Northern  warriors  might  not  iii' 
aptly  recall  those  other  lines  of  the  same  book  of  the  Iliad,  where 
tho  downfall  ol"  Patrocius  beneath  Hector  is  likened  to  the  forced 
yielding  of  the  panting  and  exhausted  wild  boar,  that  had  long 
a.id  iviriously  fought  with  a  superior  beast  of  prey  for  the  posses- 
bIou  of  the  scanty  fountain  among  the  rocks  at  which  each  burned 
to  drirdv.* 

Allhough  three  centuries  had  passed  away  since  the  Gevmau- 
ii  conquerors  of  Korne  had  crossed  the  Rhine,  never  to  rcpa^a 
that  frontier  stream,  no  settled  system  of  institutions  or  govern- 
ment, no  amalgamation  of  the  various  races  into  one  people,  no 
uniformity  of  language  or  habits,  had  been  established  in  the 
country  at  the  time  when  Charles  Martel  was  called  to  repel 
the  menacing  tide  of  Saracenic  invasion  from  the  south.  Gau) 
was  not  yet  France.  In  that,  as  in  other  provinces  of  the  Ro- 
man empire  of  the  West,  the  dominion  of  the  Cajsars  had  been 
shattered  as  early  as  the  fifth  century,  and  barbaric  kingdoms 
and  principalities  had  promptly  arisen  on  the  ruins  of  the  Ro- 
man power.  But  few  of  these  had  any  permanency,  and  none 
of  them  consolidated  the  rest,  or  any  considerable  number  of  the 
rest,  into  one  coherent  and  organized  civil  and  political  society. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  population  still  consisted  of  the  conquered 
provincials,  that  is  to  say,  of  Romanized  Celts,  of  a  Gallic  race 
which  had  long  been  under  the  dominion  of  the  Ctcsars,  and  had 
acquired,  together  with  no  slight  infusion  of  Roman  blood,  the 
language,  the  literature,  the  laws,  and  the  civilization  of  Latium. 
Among  these,  and  dominant  over  them,  roved  or  dwelt  the  Ger 
man  victors  ;  some  retaining  nearly  all  the  rude  independence 
of  their  primitive  national  character,  others  softened  and  di.sci- 
plined  by  the  aspect  and  contact  of  the  manners  and  nistitutiona 
of  civilized  life  ;  for  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Roman 
Birjpire  in  tlie  West  was  not  crushed  by  any  sudden  avalanche 

Aeovd'  uc,  drjpivQfjTTjv, 
'Qr'  opcof  KOi)v<p^ai  nepl  KTa/ievT](  k?id(poio, 
'Afi(p(j  Treivdovre,  [li'ka  (ppoveovre  fidx^odov. 

11. ,  tt'.  766 

'ftf  6'  ure  avv  uKd/xavra  2.e(jv  i&triaaTo  xupf^flt 
Tu  t'  opeof  Kopv<pyai.  fxiya  ippoviovre  /auxeaOov, 
llidoKoc  ufi(p'  oXiyri^  •  kdt'kovai  6e  niipev  d/i<pu  * 
lloUa  6i  t'  dadjiaivovTa  7,E<jiv  iddfiaaae  jiitjctnv 


172  BATTLE     OF     TOURS. 

tf  barbaric  invasion.  The  German  conquerors  came  acro^o  (hfl 
Rhine,  not  in  enormous  hosts,  but  in  bands  of  a  few  thousaii;i 
warriors  at  a  time.  The  conquest  of  a  province  was  the  resnll 
t)f  an  infinite  series  of  partial  local  invasions,  carried  on  by  little 
jrraies  of  this  description.  The  victorious  warriors  either  re 
tired  with  their  booty,  or  fixed  themselves  in  the  invaded  dis- 
trict, taking  care  to  keep  sufficiently  concentrated  for  military 
piirposes,  and  ever  ready  for  some  fresh  foray,  either  against  a 
rl  ral  Teutonic  band,  or  some  hitherto  unassailed  city  of  the  pro- 
vincials. Gradually,  however,  the  conquerors  acquired  a  desire 
for  permanent  landed  possessions.  They  lost  somewhat  of  the 
restless  thirst  for  novelty  and  adventure  which  had  first  made 
them  throng  beneath  the  banner  of  the  boldest  captains  of  theii 
*ribe,  and  leave  their  native  forests  for  a  roving  mihtary  life  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  They  were  converted  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  gave  up  with  their  old  creed  much  of  the  coarse 
ferocity  which  must  have  been  fostered  in  the  spirits  of  the  an- 
cient warriors  of  the  North  by  a  mythology  which  promised,  aa 
the  reward  of  the  brave  on  earth,  an  eternal  cycle  of  fighting 
and  drunkenness  in  heaven. 

But,  although  their  conversion  and  other  civilizing  influences 
operated  powerfully  upon  the  Germans  in  Gaul,  and  although 
the  Franks  (who  were  originally  a  confederation  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  that  dwelt  between  the  Rhine,  the  Maine,  and  the  Weser) 
established  a  decisive  superiority  over  the  other  conquerors  of  the 
province,  as  well  as  over  the  conquered  provincials,  the  country 
long  remained  a  chaos  of  uncoinbined  and  shifting  elements 
The  early  princes  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty  were  generally 
occupied  in  wars  against  other  princes  of  their  house,  occasioned 
by  the  frequent  subdivisions  of  the  Frank  monarchy  ;  and  the 
ablest  and  best  of  them  had  found  all  their  energies  tasked  to  tlio 
nimost  to  defend  the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  against  the  pagan  Goi- 
inans  who  strove  to  pass  that  river  and  gather  their  share  of  thn 
spoils  of  the  empire. 

The  conquests  which  the  Saracens  efi'ected  over  the  soiillierii 
aird  eastern  provinces  of  Rome  were  far  more  rapid  than  those 
achieved  by  the  Germans  in  the  north,  and  the  new  organiza* 
liyns  o!"  society  which  the  Moslems  introduced  were  summarily 
aad  uniformly  enforced.  Exactly  a  century  passed  between  the 
death  of  Mohammed  and  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Tours.     Tur 


I 


BATTI.  EUFTOURS.  //. 

ing  thai  century  the  followers  of  the  Propliet  had  torn  ^way  lialf 
the  Roi  lau  empire  ;  and  besides  their  conquests  over  Persia,  the 
Saracens  had  overrun  Syria,  Egypt,  Africa,  and  Spain,  in  an  un- 
checkered  and  apparently  irresistible  career  of  victory.  Nor,  at 
the  conunencement  of  the  eighth  century  of  our  era,  vias  the  Mo- 
hammedan world  divided  against  itself,  as  it  subsequently  be- 
came. All  these  vast  regions  obeyed  the  caliph  ;  throughout 
them  all,  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Oxus,  the  name  of  Mohammed 
was  invoked  in  prayer,  and  the  Koran  revered  as  the  book  ol 
the  law. 

It  was  under  one  of  their  ablest  and  most  renowned  com- 
manders, with  a  veteian  army,  and  with  every  apparent  advant- 
age of  time,  place,  and  circumstance,  that  the  Arabs  made  their 
great  efibrt  at  the  conquest  of  Europe  north  of  the  Pyrenees 
The  victorious  Moslem  soldiery  in  Spain, 

"  A  countless  multitude  ; 
Syrian,  Moor,  Saracen,  Greek  renegade, 
Persian,  and  Copt,  and  Tartar,  in  one  bond 
Of  erring  faith  conjoined — strong  in  the  youth 
And  heat  of  zeal — a  dreadful  brotherhood," 

were  eager  for  the  plunder  of  more  Christian  cities  and  shrineb, 
and  full  of  fanatic  confidence  in  the  invincibility  of  their  arms. 

Nor  were  the  chiefs 
Of  victory  less  assured,  by  long  success 
Elate,  and  proud  of  that  o'erwhelming  strength 
Which,  surely  they  believed,  as  it  had  rolled 
Thus  far  uncheck'd,  would  roll  victorious  on, 
Till,  like  the  Orient,  the  subjected  West 
Should  bow  in  reverence  at  Mohammed's  name  ; 
And  pilgrims  from  remotest  Arctic  shores 
Tread  with  religious  feet  the  burning  sands 
Of  Araby  and  Mecca's  stony  soil. 

SocTHEv's  Roderick. 

xt  i«  not  only  by  the  modern  Christian  poet,  but  by  the  old 
Arabian  chroniclers  also,  that  these  feelings  of  ambition  and  ar- 
rogance are  attributed  to  the  Moslems  \Aho  had  overthrown  the 
Visigoth  power  in  Spain.  And  ^.heir  eager  expectations  of  ;iew 
wars  were  excited  to  the  utmost  on  the  reappointment  by  the 
caliph  of  Abderrahman  Ibn  Abdillah  Alghafeki  to  the  govern- 
ment of  that  country,  A  D.  729,  which  restored  them  a  general 
who  had  signalized  his  skll  and  prowess  during  the  ionquejsts  <>t 


174  BATTLE     or     TOURS. 

A-frica  and  Spain,  whose  ready  valor  and  generosity  had  made 
him  tlie  idol  of  the  troops,  who  had  already  been  engaged  in  sev' 
oral  ex])editio\is  into  Gaul,  so  as  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
national  character  and  tactics  of  the  Franks,  and  who  was  known 
to  thirst,  like  a  good  Moslem,  for  revenge  for  the  slaughter  of 
some  detachments  of  the  True  Believers,  which  had  been  cut  off 
)u  the  north  of  the  Pyrenees. 

In  addition  to  his  cardinal  military  virtues,  Abderrahman  ia 
described  by  the  Arab  writers  as  a  model  of  integrity  and  justice. 
The  first  two  years  of  his  second  administration  in  Spain  were 
occupied  in  severe  reforms  of  the  abuses  which  under  his  prede- 
cessors had  crept  into  the  system  of  government,  and  in  exten- 
sive preparations  for  his  intended  conquest  in  Gaul.  Besides  the 
troops  which  he  collected  from  his  province,  he  obtained  from 
Africa  a  large  body  of  chosen  Berber  cavalry,  officered  by  Arabs 
of  proved  skill  and  valor  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  732,  he  crossed 
the  Pyrenees  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  some  Arab  writers 
rate  at  eighty  thousand  strong,  while  some  of  the  Christian  chron- 
iclers swell  its  numbers  to  many  hundreds  of  thousands  more. 
Probably  the  Arab  account  diminishes,  but  of  the  two  keeps 
nearer  to  the  truth.  It  was  from  this  formidable  host,  after  Eu- 
des,  the  Count  of  Aquitaine,  had  vainly  striven  to  cheek  it,  after 
many  strong  cities  had  fallen  before  it,  and  half  the  land  had 
been  overrun,  that  Gaul  and  Christendom  were  at  last  rescued 
by  the  strong  arm  of  Prince  Charles,  who  acquired  a  surname,* 
like  that  of  the  war-god  of  his  forefathers'  creed,  from  the  might 
with  which  he  broke  and  shattered  his  enemies  in  the  battle. 

The  Merovingian  kings  had  sunk  into  absolute  insignificance, 
and  had  become  mere  puppets  of  royalty  before  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. Charles  Martel,  like  his  father,  Pepin  Heristal,  was  Duke 
of  the  AuBtrasian  Franks,  the  bravest  and  most  thoroughly  Ger- 
manic part  of  the  nation,  and  exercised,  in  the  name  of  the  titu- 
lar king,  what  little  paramount  authority  the  turbulent  minor 
rulers  of  districts  and  towns  could  be  persuaded  or  compelled  to 
acknowledge.  Engaged  with  his  national  competitors  in  perpet- 
ual conflicts  for  power,  and  in  more  serious  struggles  for  safety 
against  the  fierce  tribes  of  the  unconverted  Frisians,  Bavarians, 
Saxons,  aud  Thuringiaus,  who  at  that  epoch  assailed  with  pecu- 

»  Martel — The  Hammer  See  tlic  Scandinavian  Sagas  for  an  accounf 
of  the  favorite  weapon   )fThor. 


BATTLE     OF     TOURS  17(5 

jar  ferocity  the  Christianized  Germans  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhnie,  Charles  Martel  added  experienced  skill  to  his  natural 
courage,  and  he  had  also  formed  a  militia  of  veterans  among  the 
Franks.  Hallam  has  thrown  out  a  doubt  whether,  in  our  admi- 
ration of  his  victory  at  Tours,  we  do  not  judge  a  little  too  much 
by  llie  event,  and  whether  there  was  not  rashness  in  his  risking 
ihe  fate  of  France  on  the  result  of  a  general  battle  wilh  the  in- 
vaders. But  when  we  remember  that  Charles  had  no  standing 
aiTny,  and  the  independent  spirit  of  the  Frank  warriors  who  fol- 
l";wed  his  standard,  it  seems  most  probable  that  it  was  not  in  hia 
power  to  adopt  the  cautious  policy  of  watching  the  invaders,  and 
wearing  out  their  strength  by  delay.  So  dreadful  and  so  wide- 
spread were  the  ravages  of  the  Saracenic  light  cavalry  through- 
out Gaul,  that  it  must  have  been  impossible  to  restrain  for  any 
length  of  time  the  indignant  ardor  of  the  Franks.  And,  even  if 
Charles  could  have  persuaded  his  men  to  look  tamely  on  while 
the  Arabs  stormed  more  towns  and  desolated  more  districts,  he 
could  not  have  kept  an  army  together  when  the  usual  period  of 
a  military  expedition  had  expired.  If,  indeed,  the  Arab  account 
of  the  disorganization  of  the  Moslem  forces  be  correct,  the  battle 
was  as  well  timed  on  the  part  of  Charles,  as  it  was,  beyond  all 
question,  well  fought. 

The  monkish  chroniclers,  from  M'hom  we  are  obliged  to  glean 
a  narrative  of  this  memorable  campaign,  bear  full  evidence  to  the 
terror  which  the  Saracen  invasion  inspired,  and  to  the  agony  of 
that  great  struggle.  The  Saracens,  say  they,  and  their  king, 
who  was  called  Abdirames,  came  out  of  Spain,  with  all  their 
wives,  and  their  children,  and  their  substance,  in  such  great  mul- 
titudes that  no  man  could  reckon  or  estimate  them.  They  brought 
with  them  all  their  armor,  and  whatever  they  had,  as  if  they 
were  thenceforth  always  to  dwell  in  France.* 

"  Then  Abderrahman,  seeing  the  land  filled  with  the  multi- 
tude of  his  army,  pierces  through  the  mountains,  tramples  over 
rough  and  level  ground,  plunders  far  into  the  country  of  the 
Franks,  and  smites  all  with  the   sword,  insomuch  that  when 

*  "  Lors  issirent  d'Espaigne  li  Sarrazins.  el  iin  lenr  Roi  qui  avuit  nnm 
Abdirames,  el  onl  leur  fames  et  leur  enfans  el  toule  Iciir  suhslance  en  si 
grand  plciile  que  mis  ne  le  prevoit  nomhier  ne  eslimer:  tout  li.'ui  liarnoie 
et  qiianqufs  il  avoient  amenement  avec  entz,  aussi  comme  si  lis  deuaseol 
tonjours  mes  iiabitor  en  France." 


176 


BATTLE     or     TOURS, 


Eudo  ;ame  1o  battle  with  him  at  the  River  Garonne,  and  fled 
before  him.  God  ^.lone  kuoM-g  the  number  of  the  slain.  Tlien 
Abderrahmau  jjursued  after  Count  Eudo,  and  whii*^  he  strives  to 
spoil  and  burn  the  holy  shrine  at  Tours,  he  encounters  the  chief 
of  the  Austrasian  Franks,  Charles,  a  man  of  w^ar  from  his  youth 
up,  to  whom  Eudo  had  sent  warning.  There  for  nearly  seven 
days  they  strive  intensely,  and  at  last  they  set  themselves  in  bat- 
tle array,  and  the  nations  of  the  North  standing  firm  as  a  wall, 
and  impenetrable  as  a  zone  of  ice,  utterly  slay  the  Arabs  Avith 
the  edge  of  the  sword."* 

The  European  writers  all  concur  in  speaking  of  the  fall  of 
Abderrahman  as  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  defeat  of  the 
Arabs  ;  who,  according  to  one  writer,  after  finding  that  their 
leader  was  slain,  dispersed  in  the  night,  to  the  agreeable  surprise 
of  the  Christians,  who  expected  the  next  morning  to  see  them 
issue  from  their  tents  and  renew  the  combat.  One  monkish 
chronicler  puts  the  loss  of  the  Arabs  at  375,000  men,  while  he 
says  that  only  1007  Christians  fell  :  a  disparity  of  loss  which  he 
feels  bound  to  account  for  by  a  special  interposition  of  Providence. 
I  have  translated  above  some  of  the  most  spirited  passages  of 
these  writers  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  collect  from  them  any  thing 
like  a  full  or  authentic  description  of  the  great  battle  itself,  or 
of  the  opei'ations  which  preceded  and  followed  it. 

Though,  however,  we  may  have  cause  to  regret  the  meagre 
ness  and  doubtful  character  of  these  narratives,  M^e  have  the  great 
advantage  of  being  able  to  compare  the  accounts  given  of  Ab- 
derrahman's  expedition  by  the  national  writers  of  each  side. 
This  is  a  benefit  which  the  inquirer  into  antiquity  so  seldom  can 
obtain,  that  the  fact  of  possessing  it,  in  the  case  of  the  battle  of 
Tours,  makes  us  think  the  historical  testimony  respecting  that 
great  event  more  certain  and  satisfactory  than  is  the  case  in  many 
other  instances,  where  we  possess  abundant  details  respecting 
military  exploits,  but  where  those  details  come  to  us  from  the  an- 
nalist of  one  nation  only,  and  where  we  have,  consequently,  no 
safeguard  against  the  exaggerations,  the  distortions,  and  the  he- 
lions  which  national  vanity  has  so  often  put  forth  in  the  gMrb 
and  under  the  title  of  history.  The  Arabian  writers  who  recoi-d- 
pd  the  ;onquests  and  wars  of  their  countrymen  in  Spain  have 

"  Tunc  Abdirrahrnan,  mullitudine  sui  exercitus  repIetaiD  prospiciens 
terrain,  &.c. — Script.  Gest.  Franc,  p.  786. 


BATTLE     OF     TOUKS.  177 

aarrated  also  thf  expedition  into  Gaul  of  their  great  eoir,  and 
his  defeat  and  death  near  Tours,  in  battle  with  the  host  of  the 
Franks  under  King  Caldus,  the  name  into  which  they  metamor- 
phose Charles  Martel.* 

They  tell  us  how  there  was  war  between  the  count  of  the 
Prankish  frontier  and  the  Moslems,  and  how  the  count  gathered 
together  all  his  people,  and  fought  for  a  time  with  doubtful  s  ac- 
cess. "  But,"  say  the  Arabian  chroniclers,  "  Abderrahman  diov»= 
them  back  ;  and  the  men  of  Abderrahman  were  puffed  up  in 
spirit  by  their  repeated  successes,  and  they  were  full  of  trust  in 
the  valor  and  the  practice  in  war  of  their  emir.  So  the  Moslems 
smote  their  enemies,  and  passed  the  River  Garonne,  and  laid 
waste  the  country,  and  took  captives  without  number.  And  that 
army  went  through  all  places  like  a  desolating  storm.  Prosper- 
ity made  these  warriors  insatiable.  At  the  passage  of  the  river, 
Abderrahman  overthrew  the  count,  and  the  count  retired  into  his 
stronghold,  but  the  Moslems  fought  against  it,  and  entered  it  by 
force  and  slew  the  count  ;  for  every  thing  gave  way  to  their  cim- 
eters,  which  were  the  robbers  of  lives.  All  the  nations  of  the 
Franks  trembled  at  that  terrible  army,  and  they  betook  them  to 
their  king  Caldus,  and  told  him  of  the  havoc  made  by  the  Mos- 
lem horsemen,  and  how  they  rode  at  their  will  through  all  the 
land  of  Narbonne,  Toulouse,  and  Bordeaux,  and  they  told  the 
king  of  the  death  of  their  count.  Then  the  king  bade  them  be 
of  good  cheer,  and  offered  to  aid  them.  And  in  the  114th  yearf 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  he  took  with  him  a  host  that  could 
not  be  numbered,  and  went  against  the  Moslems.  And  he  came 
upon  them  at  the  great  city  of  Tours.  And  Abderrahman  and 
other  prudent  cavaliers  saw  the  disorder  of  the  Moslem  troops, 
whc  were  loaded  with  spoil ;  but  they  did  not  venture  to  dis- 
please the  soldiers  by  ordering  them  to  abandon  every  thing  ex- 
cept their  arms  and  war-horses.  And  Abderrahman  trusted  in 
the  valor  of  his  soldiers,  and  in  the  good  fortune  which  had  ever 

*  Tbc  Arabian  chronicles  were  compiled  and  translated  into  Spanish 
Dy  D.)r)  Jose  Antonio  Conde,  in  his  "  Historia  dc  la  Domiiiacion  de  lot 
Arabos  en  Espana,'"  published  at  Madrid  in  1820.  Conde's  plan,  which  I 
have  endeavored  to  follow,  was  to  preserve  bolii  the  style  and  spirit  of  his 
Oriental  authorities,  so  that  we  find  in  his  pages  a  genuine  Saracen'c  nar 
rative  of  the  wars  in  Western  Europe  between  the  Mohammedcjis  and 
tS\e  Christians  f  Of  the  Fegira. 

H  2 


i78  BATTIE     OF     TOURS. 

attended  him  But  (the  Arab  writer  remarks)  such  defect  ol 
discipline  always  is  fatal  to  armies.  So  Abderrahman  and  liia 
host  attacked  Tours  to  gain  still  more  spoil,  and  they  fouylil 
against  it  so  fiei-cely  that  they  stormed  the  city  almost  before  ihc 
eyes  of  the  army  that  came  to  save  it ;  and  the  fury  and  the  cru 
elty  of  the  Moslems  toward  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  was  like 
the  fury  and  cruelty  of  raging  tigeis.  It  was  manifest,"  add* 
liio  A  rab,  "  tliat  God's  chastisement  was  sure  to  follow  such  ex- 
i^3£ses ;  and  Fortune  thereupon  turned  her  back  upon  the  Moslems. 

"  Near  the  River  Owar,*  the  two  great  hosts  of  the  two  Ian 
guages  and  the  two  creeds  were  set  in  array  against  each  other. 
The  hearts  of  Abderrahman,  his  captains,  and  his  men,  were 
filled  with  wrath  and  pride,  and  they  were  the  first  to  begin  the 
fight.  The  Moslem  horsemen  dashed  fierce  and  frequent  for- 
ward against  the  battalions  of  the  Franks,  who  resisted  manfully, 
and  many  fell  dead  on  either  side,  until  the  going  down  of  the 
Bun.  Night  parted  the  two  armies  ;  but  in  the  gray  of  the  morn- 
ing the  Moslems  returned  to  the  battle.  Their  cavahers  had  soon 
hewai  their  way  into  the  centre  of  the  Christian  host.  But  many 
of  the  Moslems  were  fearful  for  the  safety  of  the  spoil  which  they 
had  stored  in  their  tents,  and  a  false  cry  arose  in  their  ranks  that 
some  of  the  enemy  were  plundering  the  camp  ;  whereupon  sev- 
eral squadrons  of  the  Moslem  horsemen  rode  off  to  protect  theii 
tents.  But  it  seemed  as  if  they  fled  ;  and  all  the  host  was 
troubled.  And  while  Abderrahman  strove  to  check  their  tumult, 
and  to  lead  them  back  to  battle,  the  warriors  of  the  Franks  came 
around  him,  and  he  was  pierced  through  with  many  spears,  so 
that  he  died.  Then  all  the  host  fled  before  the  enemy,  and 
many  died  in  the  flight.  This  deadly  defeat  of  the  Moslems,  and 
the  loss  of  the  great  leader  and  good  cavalier  Abderrahman,  took 
place  in  the  hundred  and  fifteenth  year." 

[t  would  be  difficult  to  expect  from  an  adversary  a  more  ex 
plicit  confession  of  having  been  thoroughly  vanquished  than  the 
Arabs  here  accord  to  the  Europeans.  The  points  on  which  their 
flaiTative  difl'ers  from  those  of  the  Christians — as  to  how  many 
days  the  conflict  lasted,  whether  the  assailed  city  was  actually 
loscued  o:  not,  and  the  like — are  of  little  mbment  compared  with 
the  admitted  great  fact  that  there  was  a  decisive  trial  of  strength 
batween  Frank  and  Saracen,  in  which  the  former  cnnqueved 
♦  Probably  the  Loire. 


'SYNOPSIS    OF     EVENTS,    ETC.  *  l79 

The  enduring  importance  of  the  battle  of  Tours  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Moslems  is  attested  nut  only  by  the  expressions  of  "  the  dead- 
ly battle"  and  "  the  disgraceful  overthrow"  which  their  writers 
constantly  employ  when  referring  to  it,  but  also  by  the  fact  that 
no  more  serious  attempts  at  conquest  beyond  the  Pyrenees  were 
made  by  the  Saracens.  Charles  Martel,  and  his  son  and  grai'l- 
6on,  wtr-rc  left  at  leisure  to  consolidate  and  extend  their  power 
The  ufcw  Christian  Roman  empire  of  the  West,  which  the  geu- 
ius  of  Charlemagne  founded,  and  throughout  which  his  iron  will 
imposed  peace  oir  the  old  anarchy  of  creeds  and  races,  did  not 
indeed  retain  its  integrity  after  its  great  ruler's  death.  Fresh 
troubles  came  over  Europe  ;  but  Christendom,  though  disunited 
was  safe.  The  progress  of  civilization,  and  the  development  of 
the  nationalities  and  governments  of  modern  Europe,  from  that 
time  forth  went  forward  in  not  uninterrupted,  but  ultimately  cer 
tain  career. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Tours,  A.D. 
732,  AND  THE  Battle  of  Hastings,  A.D.   1066. 

A.D.  768-814.  Reign  of  Charlemagne.  This  monarch  has 
justly  been  termed  the  principal  regenerator  of  Western  Europe, 
after  the  destaiction  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  early  death  of 
his  brother  Carloman  left  him  sole  master  of  the  dominion  of  the 
Franks,  which,  by  a  succession  of  victorious  wars,  he  enlarged 
into  the  new  empire  of  the  West.  He  conquered  the  Lombards, 
and  re-established  the  pope  at  Rome,  who,  in  return,  acknowl- 
edged Charles  as  suzerain  of  Italy.  And  in  the  year  800,  Leo 
III.,  in  the  name  of  the  Roman  people,  solemnly  crowned  Charle- 
magne at  Rome  as  emperor  of  the  Roman  empire  of  the  West. 
In  Spain,  Charlemagne  ruled  the  country  between  the  Pyieueos 
and  the  Ebro  ;  but  his  most  important  conquests  were  efl'ected  on 
the  eastern  side  of  his  original  kingdom,  over  the  Sclavonians  of 
Bohemia,  the  Avars  of  Pannonia  and  over  the  previously  unciv- 
ilized German  tiibes,  who  had  remained  in  their  fatherland. 
The  old  Saxons  were  his  most  obstinate  antagonists,  and  his  wars 
witl.  them  lasted  for  thirty  years.  Under  him  the  greater  part 
of  Gjimaay  was  compulsorily  civihzed  and  converted  from  pagan- 
"wm  to  Christianity.     His  empire  extended  eastward  as  far  as  the 


180  SYNOPSIS    OF     EVENTS     AFTER 

Elbe,  the  Saale,  the  Bohemian  Mountains,  and  a  line  drawn  from 
thence  crossing  the  Danube  above  Vienna,  and  prolonged  to  the 
Gulf  of  Istria.* 

Throughout  this  vast  assemblage  of  provinces,  Charlemagne 
established  an  organized  and  firm  government.  But  it  is  not  aa 
a  mere  conqueror  that  he  demands  admiration.  "In  a  life  rest- 
lessly active,  we  see  him  reforming  the  coinage  and  establishing 
the  Irgal  divisions  of  money  ;  gathering  about  him  the  learned  of 
tvery  country  ;  founding  schools  and  collecting  libraries  ;  interfer- 
irg,  with  the  air  of  a  king,  in  religious  controversies  ;  attempting, 
for  the  sake  of  commerce,  the  magnificent  enterprise  of  miiting 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  and  meditating  to  mold  the  discord- 
ant code  of  Roman  and  barbarian  laws  into  a  uniform  system. "f 

814—888.  Repeated  partitions  of  the  empire  and  civil  wars  be- 
tween Charlemagne's  descendants.  Ultimately  the  kingdom  of 
France  is  finally  separated  from  Germany  and  Italy.  In  962, 
Otho  the  Great  of  Germany  revives  the  imperial  dignity. 

827.  Egbert,  king  of  Wessex,  acquires  the  supremacy  over  the 
other  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms. 

832.  The  first  Danish  squadron  attacks  part  of  the  English 
coast.  The  Danes,  or  Northmen,  had  begun  their  ravages  in 
France  a  few  years  earlier.  For  two  centuries  Scandinavia  sends 
out  fleet  after  fleet  of  sea-rovers,  who  desolate  all  the  western 
kingdoms  of  Europe,  and  in  many  cases  efl'ect  permanent  con- 
quests. 

871-900.  Reign  of  Alfred  in  England.  After  a  long  and  va 
ried  struggle,  he  rescues  England  from  the  Danish  invaders. 

911.  The  French  king  cedes  Neustria  to  Hrolf  the  Northman, 
Hrolf  (or  Duke  RoUo,  as  he  thenceforlh  w^as  termed)  and  his  anny 
of  Scandinavian  wai'riors  become  the  ruhng  class  of  the  population 
of  the  provincf^,  which  is  called  after  them,  Normandy, 

1016.  Four  Knights  from  Normandy,  who  had  been  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  the  Holy  Land,  while  returning  through  Italy,  head 
the  people  of  Salerno  in  repelling  an  attack  of  a  band  of  Saracen 
corsairs.  In  the  next  year  many  adventurers  from  Noi-mandy  set- 
tle in  Italy,  where  they  conquer  Apulia  (1040),  and  afterward 
(10  50)  Sicily. 

1017.  Canute,  king  of  Denmark,  becomes  king  of  England 
On  the  death  of  the  last  of  his  sons,  in  1041,  the  Saxon  line  is  t» 

*  Hallam's  "Middlr- Ages."  t  Hallatn,  ur  «upra. 


Tila      BATTLtUf     TOURS.  18| 

ftXored,  and  Edward  the  Confessor  (who  had  been  bred  in  the  conrt 
of  the  Duke  of  Normandy)  is  called  by  the  English  to  the  throne 
of  this  island,  as  the  representative  of  the  house  of  Cerdic. 

1035.  Duke  Robert  of  Normandy  dies  on  his  return  from  a  pil* 
grim'ige  to  the  Holy  Land,  anvl  his  son  Wilham  (afterwari  the 
nvaqueror  of  England)  succiedfc  to  the  dukedom  of  Normiiudy. 


182  BATTLE     OF     HASTINRB. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  HASTINGS,  A.D.  106b. 

Eis  vos  la  Bataille  assemblee, 
Dune  encore  est  grant  renomee. 

Roman  dc  Rou,  13183. 

Arletta's  pretty  feet  twinkling  in  the  brook  made  her  Vaa 
mother  of  WilHam  the  Conqueror.  Had  she  not  thus  fascinated 
Duke  Robert  the  Liberal  of  Normandy,  Harold  would  not  have 
fallen  at  Hastings,  no  Anglo-Norman  dynasty  could  have  arisen, 
no  British  empire.  The  reflection  is  Sir  Francis  Palgrave's;* 
and  it  is  emphatically  true.  If  any  one  should  write  a  history 
of  "  Decisive  loves  that  have  materially  influenced  the  drama  of 
the  world  in  all  its  subsequent  scenes,"  the  daughter  of  the  tan- 
ner of  Falaise  would  deserve  a  conspicuous  place  in  his  pages. 
But  it  is  her  son,  the  victor  of  Hastings,  who  is  now  the  object 
of  our  attention  ;  and  no  one  who  appreciates  the  influence  of 
England  and  her  empire  upon  the  destinies  of  the  world  will 
ever  rank  that  victory  as  one  of  secondary  importance. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  last  century  some  writers  of  eminence 
on  our  history  and  laws  mentioned  the  Norman  Conquest  in  terms 
from  which  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  battle  of  Hastings  led 
to  little  more  than  the  substitution  of  one  royal  family  on  the 
throne  of  this  country,  and  to  the  garbling  and  changing  of  some 
of  our  laws  through  the  "  cunning  of  the  Norman  lawyers."  But, 
at  least  since  the  appearance  of  the  work  of  Augustin  Thierry  on 
the  Norman  Conquest,  these  forensic  fallacies  have  been  exploded. 
Thierry  made  his  readers  keenly  appreciate  the  magnitude  of 
that  ])olitical  and  social  catasti'ophe.  He  depicted  in  vivid  colora 
the  atrocious  crnelties  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  sweeping  and 
in  J  iring  innovations  that  they  wrought,  involving  the  overthnjw 
of  ill:  ancient  constitution,  as  well  as  of  the  last  of  the  Sa'xon 
kings.  In  his  pages  we  see  new  tribunals  and  tenures  s'lpcr- 
6eJi)ig  llie  old  ones,  new  divisiors  of  race  and  class  introduced, 
whole  districts  devastated  to  gratify  the  vengeance  or  tins  capriw 
♦  '  History  of  Normandy  and  England,"  vol.  i.,  p.  526. 


B  A  r  T  L  E     O  F     11  A  S  T  I  N  G  S.  1  ^'^ 

sf  the  new  cyrant,  the  greater  part  of  the  lands  oi'  the  Eiiylitili 
•Vjiifiscate  \  and  divided  among  aliens,  the  very  name  of  Englisn- 
<u..ji  lurae'i  into  a  reproach,  the  English  language  rejected  at 
servile  and  barbarous,  and  all  the  high  places  in  church  and  state 
foi  upward  of  a  century  filled  exclusively  by  men  of  foreign  race. 
No  less  true  than  eloquent  is  Thierry's  summing  up  of  the  so- 
tial  cflects  of  the  Norman  Conquest  on  the  generation  ths-t  wit- 
r.essed  it,  and  on  many  of  their  successors.  He  tells  his  reader 
(hat  "  if  he  would  form  a  just  idea  of  England  conquered  hy 
William  of  Normandy,  he  must  figure  to  himself — not  a  mere 
change  of  political  rule — not  the  triumph  of  one  candidate  over 
another  candidate — of  the  man  of  one  party  over  the  man  of  an- 
other party,  but  the  intrusion  of  one  people  into  the  bosom  of  an- 
other people — the  violent  placing  of  one  society  over  another  so- 
ciety which  it  came  to  destroy,  and  the  scattered  fragments  of 
■w'hich  it  retained  only  as  personal  property,  or  (to  use  the  words 
of  an  old  act)  as  '  the  clothing  of  the  soil ;'  he  must  not  picture  to 
himself,  on  the  one  hand,  William,  a  king  and  a  despot  —  on  the 
other,  subjects  of  "William's,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  all  in 
habiting  England,  and  consequently  all  Enghsli ;  he  must  im- 
agine two  nations,  of  one  of  which  William  is  a  member  and  the 
chiefs — two  nations  which  (if  the  term  must  be  used)  were  both 
subject  to  William,  but  as  applied  to  which  the  word  has  quite 
difli^rent  senses,  meaning,  in  the  one  case,  subordinate  —  in  the 
other,  subjugated.  He  must  consider  that  there  are  two  coun 
tries,  two  soils,  included  in  the  same  geographical  circumference 
— that  of  the  Normans,  rich  and  free  ;  tnai  of  tVie  feaxons,  pooi 
and  serving,  vexed  by  rent  and  toilage :  the  former  full  of  spa 
cious  mansions,  and  walled  and  moated  castles  ;  the  latter  scat- 
tered over  with  huts  and  straw,  and  ruined  hovels  :  that  peopled 
with  the  happy  and  the  idle — with  men  of  the  army  and  of  the 
court — with  knights  and  nobles  ;  this  with  men  of  pain  and  labor 
— -Avilh  farmers  and  artisans  :  on  the  one  side,  luxury  and  inso- 
lence ;  on  the  other,  misery  and  envy — not  the  envy  of  the  poor 
at  the  sight  of  opulence  they  can  not  reach,  but  the  envy  of  th-3 
despoiled  when  in  presence  of  the  despoilers." 

I'erl.  aps  the  ellect  of  Thierry's  work  has  been  to  cast  into  the 
ehale  ;  he  ultimate  good  eti'ects  on  England  of  the  Norman  Con- 
quest. Yet  these  are  ai  undeniable  as  are  the  miseries  which 
ihat  conquest  inflicted  on  our  Saxon  ancestors  from  the  time  o^ 


184  BATTLE   OF    Hastings. 

the  battle  of  Hastings  to  the  time  of  the  signing  of  the  Great 
Charter-  at  Runnymede.  That  last  is  the  true  epoch  of  English 
nationality  ;  it  is  the  epoch  when  Anglo-Norman  and  Anglo 
Saxcn  ceased  to  keep  aloof  from  each  other — the  one  in  haughty 
scorn,  the  other  in  sullen  abhorrence  ;  and  when  all  the  free  men 
of  the  land,  whether  barons,  knights,  yeomen,  or  burgliers,  cotv 
bJaed  to  lay  the  foundations  of  English  freedom. 

Our  Noriaan  barons  were  the  chiefs  of  that  primary  constitu- 
tional movement ;  those  "  iron  barons,"  whom  Chatham  has  so 
nobly  eulogized.  This  alone  should  make  England  remember 
her  obligations  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  which  planted  far  and 
Avdde,  as  a  dominant  class  in  her  land,  a  martial  nobihty  of  the 
bravest  and  most  energetic  race  that  ever  existed. 

It  may  sound  paradoxical,  but  it  is  in  reality  no  exaggeration 
to  say,  with  Guizot,*  that  England's  liberties  are  owing  to  hei 
having  been  conquered  by  the  Normans.  It  is  true  that  the  Sax- 
on institutions  were  tlie  primitive  cradle  of  English  liberty,  but 
by  their  own  intrinsic  force  they  could  never  have  founded  the 
enduring  free  English  Constitution.  It  was  the  Conquest  that 
infused  into  them  a  new  virtue,  and  the  political  liberties  of  En 
gland  arose  from  the  situation  in  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  and 
the  Anglo-Norman  populations  and  laws  found  themselves  placed 
relatively  to  each  other  in  this  island.  The  state  of  England 
under  her  last  Anglo-Saxon  kings  closely  resembled  the  state  of 
France  under  the  last  Carlovingian  and  the  first  Capetian  princes. 
The  crown  was  feeble,  the  great  nobles  were  strong  and  turbu- 
lent ;  and  although  there  was  more  national  unity  in  Saxon  En- 
gland than  in  France — although  the  English  local  free  institu- 
tions had  more  reality  and  energy  than  was  the  case  with  any 
thing  analogous  to  them  on  the  Continent  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, still  the  probability  is  that  the  Saxon  system  of  polity,  if 
left  to  itself,  would  have  fallen  into  utter  confusion,  out  of  which 
would  have  arisen,  first,  an  aristocratic  hierarchy,  like  that  which 
arose  in  France  ;  next,  an  absolute  monarchy  ;  and,  finally,  s 
eencs  of  anarchical  revolutions,  such  as  we  now  beheld  arcf.-i, 
but  net  among  us.f 

The  latest  conquerors  of  this  island  were  also  the  bravest  and 
the  best,     I  do  not  except  even  the  Romans.     And,  in  epite  of 

*  "  Essais  .sur  rHistoire  de  France,"  p  273,  ct  teg. 
t  See  Guizot,  ul  supra. 


B  A  T  T  I,  K      O  F     H  A  S  T  I  N  G  S.  1  Sfc 

our  sympathies  witli  Haro'd  aud  Hereward,  and  our  abho.Tonce 
of  the  founder  of  the  New  Forest  and  the  desolator  of  Yorkshire, 
we  must  confess  the  superiority  of  the  Normans  to  the  Anjjlo- 
Saxons  and  Anglo-Danes,  whom  they  met  here  in  10C6,  as  well 
as  to  the  degenerate  Fraak  noblesse,  and  the  crushed  and  servile 
Romanesque  provincials,  from  whom,  in  912,  they  had  wrested 
tlic  district  in  the  north  of  Gaul,  which  still  bears  the  name  ol 
Normandy. 

It  was  not  merely  by  extreme  valor  and  ready  subordination 
to  military  discipline  that  the  Normans  were  pre-eminent  among 
all  the  conquering  races  of  the  Gothic  stock,  but  also  by  an  in 
stinctive  faculty  of  appreciating  and  adopting  the  superior  civil- 
izations which  they  enrountered.  Thus  Duke  Rollo  and  big 
Scandinavian  warriors  readily  embraced  the  creed,  the  language, 
the  laws,  and  the  arts,  wliich  France,  in  those  troubled  and  evil 
times  with  which  the  Capetian  dynasty  commenced,  still  inher- 
ited from  imperial  Rome  and  imperial  Charlemagne.  "  lis  adop- 
terent  les  usages,  les  devoirs,  les  subordination  que  les  capitu- 
laires  des  empereurs  et  les  rois  avoient  institues.  Mais  ce  qu'ils 
apportt-rent  dans  1' application  de  ces  lois,  ce  fut  I'esprit  de  vie, 
I'esprit  de  liberte,  I'habitude  de  la  subordination  militaire,  et  I'in- 
telligence  d'un  etat  politique  qui  cenciliat  la  surete  de  tons  avec 
I'indopendance  de  chacun."*  So,  also,  in  all  chivalric  feelings, 
in  enthusiastic  religious  zeal,  in  almost  idolati'ous  respect  to  fe- 
males of  gentle  birth,  in  generous  fondness  for  the  nascent  poetry 
of  the  time,  in  a  keen  intellectual  relish  for  subtle  thought  and 
disputation,  in  a  taste  for  architectural  magnificence,  and  all 
courtly  refinement  and  pageantry.  The  Normans  were  the  Pal- 
adins of  the  world.  Their  brilliant  qualities  were  sullied  by 
many  darker  traits  of  pride,  of  merciless  cruelty,  and  of  brutal 
contempt  for  the  industry,  the  rights,  and  the  feelings  of  all 
whom  they  considered  the  lower  classes  of  mankind. 

Their  gradual  blending  with  the  Saxons  softened  these  harsh 
and  evil  points  of  their  national  character,  and  in  return  they 
filed  the  duller  Saxon  mass  with  a  new  spirit  of  animation  and 
p(»wer.  As  Campbell  boldly  expressed  it,  "  They  high- /tut tied 
th~:  blood  of  our  veins."  Small  had  been  the  figure  which  En- 
gland made  in  the  world  before  the  coming  over  of  the  Noi-mans 
and  without  them  she  never  would  have  emerged  from  iusigjiit 
*  Sisraondi.  "  llistoire  de  Fran9ais,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  174. 


186  Battle    of    hastit^gs 

icance.  The  authority  of  Gibbon  may  be  taken  as  decisive 
when  he  pronounces  that  "  assuredly  England  was  a  gainer  by 
the  Conquest.''  And  we  may  proudly  adopt  the  comment  of  the 
Frenchman  Rapin,  who,  writing  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  more 
Ihar  a  century  ago,  speaks  of  the  revolution  effected  by  it  as  "  the 
first  s'ep  by  which  England  is  arrived  to  the  height  of  grandeur 
ud  glory  we  behold  it  in  at  present. "=^ 

The  interest  of  this  eventful  struggle,  by  which  William  of 
Normandy  became  king  of  England,  is  materially  enhanced  by 
the  high  personal  character  of  the  competitors  for  our  crown. 
They  were  three  in  number.  One  was  a  foreign  prince  from 
the  north ;  one  was  a  foreign  prince  from  the  south ;  and  one 
was  a  native  hero  of  the  land.  Harald  Hardrada,  the  strongest 
and  the  most  cliivalric  of  the  kings  of  Norway,!  was  the  fii-st ; 
Duke  William  of  Normandy  was  the  second  ;  and  the  Saxon 
Harold,  the  son  of  Earl  Godwin,  was  the  third.  Never  was  a 
nobler  prize  sought  by  nobler  champions,  or  striven  for  more 
gallantly.  The  Saxon  triumphed  over  the  Norwegian,  and  the 
Norman  triumphed  over  the  Saxon  ;  but  Norse  valor  was  never 
more  conspicuous  than  when  Harald  Hardrada  and  his  host  fought 
and  fell  at  Stamford  Bridge  ;  nor  did  Saxons  ever  face  their  foes 
more  bravely  than  our  Harold  and  his  men  on  the  fatal  day  of 
Hastings. 

Dui'ing  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the  Confessor  over  this 
land,  the  claims  of  the  Norwegian  king  to  our  crown  were  liitle 
thought  of ;  and  though  Hardrada's  predecessor,  King  Magnus 
cf  Norway,  had  on  one  occasion  asserted  that,  by  virtue  of  a 
compact  with  our  former  king,  Hardicanute,  he  was  entitled  to 
the  English  throne,  no  serious  attemj)t  had  been  made  to  en- 
force his  preten.sions.  But  the  rivalry  of  the  Saxon  Harrld  and 
the  Norman  William  was  foreseen  and  bewailed  by  the  Confess- 
or, who  was  believed  to  have  predicted  on  his  death-bed  the  oa 
lamilies  that  were  impending  over  England.  Duke  William  was 
King  Edward's  kinsman.  Harold  was  the  head  of  the  most  pow- 
;!]ful  noble  house,  next  to  the  royal  blood,  in  England  ;  and,  per- 
serially,  he  was  the  bravest  and  most  popular  chieftain  in  the 
land.     King  Edward  was  childless,  and  the  nearest  collateral 

*  Rapin,  "  Hist.  England,  '  p.   164.     See  also,  oi    this  point   Sharol 
Turner,  vol.  iv.,  p.  72. 
+  Spr  in  Snorrw  the  Saga  of  Haraldi  Hardrada. 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS.  I8'i 

heir  was  a  puny  unpromising  boy.  England  had  suflcred  too 
Beverely,  during  royal  minorities,  to  make  the  accession  of"  Ed- 
gar Athcling  desirable  ;  and  long  before  King  Edward's  death, 
Earl  Harold  was  the  destined  king  of"  the  nation's  choice,  though 
the  favor  of  the  Confessor  was  beUeved  to  lead  toward  th?  Nor- 
man duke. 

A  litlle  time  before  the  death  of  King  Edward,  Harold  "A'as  m 
Normandy.  The  causes  of  the  voyage  of  the  Saxon  earl  to  tko 
Continent  are  doubtful ;  but  the  fact  of  his  having  been,  in  1005, 
at  the  ducal  court,  and  in  the  power  of  his  rival,  is  indisputable. 
William  made  skillful  and  unscrupulous  use  of  the  opportunity. 
Tliough  Harold  was  treated  with  outward  courtesy  and  friend 
ship,  he  was  made  fully  aware  that  his  liberty  and  lif"e  depend- 
ed on  his  -compliance  with  the  duke's  requests.  William  said  to 
him,  in  apparent  confidence  and  cordiality,  "  When  King  Ed- 
ward and  I  once  lived  like  brothers  under  the  same  roof,  he 
promised  that  if  ever  he  became  King  of  England,  he  would 
make  me  heir  to  his  throne.  Harold,  I  wish  that  thou  wouldst 
assist  me  to  realize  this  promise."  Harold  replied  with  expres- 
sions of  assent ;  and  further  agreed,  at  William's  request,  to  mar- 
ry William's  daughter,  Adela,  and  to  send  over  his  own  sister  to 
be  married  to  one  of  W'illiam's  barons.  The  crafty  Norman  was 
not  content  with  this  extorted  promise  ;  he  determined  to  bind 
Harold  by  a  more  solemn  pledge,  the  breach  of  which  would  be 
a  weight  on  the  spirit  of  the  gallant  Saxon,  and  a  discourage- 
ment to  othex's  from  adopting  his  cause.  Before  a  full  assembly 
of  the  Norman  barons,  Harold  was  required  to  do  homage  to 
Duke  William,  as  the  heir  apparent  of  the  Engli.-;h  crown. 
Kneeling  down,  Harold  placed  his  hands  between  those  of  the 
iluke,  and  repeated  the  solemn  form  by  which  he  acknowledged 
the  duke  as  his  lord,  and  promised  to  him  fealty  and  true  serv- 
ice. But  William  exacted  more.  He  had  caused  all  the  bones 
and  relics  of  saints,  that  were  preserved  in  the  Norman  monaster- 
ies and  churches,  to  be  collected  into  a  chest,  which  was  placed 
i.i  the  council-room,  covered  over  with  a  cloth  of  gold  On  tho 
chiist  of  relics,  which  were  thus  concealed,  was  laid  a  missal. 
Th2  dwVi  then  solemnly  addressed  his  titular  guest  and  real  cap- 
tive, and  said  to  him,  "  Harold,  I  require  thee,  before  this  noblo 
assembly,  to  confirm  by  oath  the  promises  which  thou  hast  made 
me,  to  assist  me  in  obtaining  the  crown  of  England  after  Kin^ 


i88  BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS 

Edward's  diatii,  .0  marry  my  daughter  Adela,  and  to  sond  rue 
thy  sister,  that  I  may  give  her  in  rnan-iage  to  one  of  my  barons  '' 
Harold,  once  more  taken  by  surprise,  and  not  able  to  deny  his 
former  words,  approached  the  missal,  and  laid  his  hand  on  it,  not 
knowing  that  the  chest  of  relics  was  beneath.  The  old  Norman 
ehronicler,  who  describes  the  scene  most  minutely,*  says,  when 
Karold  placed  his  hand  on  it,  the  hand  trembled,  and  the  flesh 
quivered ;  but  he  swore,  and  promisel  upon  his  oath  to  take  Ele 
[Adela]  to  wife,  and  to  deliver  up  England  to  the  duke  and 
thereunto  to  do  all  in  his  power,  according  to  his  might  and  wit, 
after  the  death  of  Edward,  if  he  himself  should  live  ;  so  help 
him  God.  Many  cried,  "  God  grant  it  I"  and  when  Harold  rose 
from  his  knees,  the  duke  made  him  stand  close  to  the  chest,  and 
took  off"  the  pall  that  had  covered  it,  and  shoAved  Harold  upon 
what  holy  relies  he  had  sworn  ;  and  Harold  was  sorely  alarmed 
at  the  sight. 

Harold  was  soon  after  permitted  to  return  to  England  ;  and, 
after  a  short  interval,  during  which  he  distinguished  himself  by 
the  wisdom  and  humanity  with  which  he  pacified  some  formida- 
ble tumults  of  the  Anglo-Danes  in  Northumbria,  he  found  him- 
self called  on  to  decide  whether  he  would  keep  the  oath  which 
the  Norman  had  obtained  from  him,  or  mount  the  vacant  throne 
of  England  in  compliance  with  the  nation's  choice.  King  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor  died  on  the  5th  of  January,  1066,  and  on  the 
following  day  an  assembly  of  the  thanes  and  prelates  present  in 
Lo)»don,  and  of  the  citizens  of  the  metropolis,  declared  that  Har- 
old should  be  their  king.  It  was  reported  that  the  dying  Ed- 
ward had  nominated  him  as  his  successor.  But  the  sense  which 
his  countrymen  entertained  of  his  pre-eminent  merit  was  the  true 
foundation  of  his  title  to  the  crown.  Harold  resolved  to  disre- 
gard the  oath  which  he  made  in  Normandy  as  violent  and  void, 
and  ovi  the  7th  day  of  that  January  he  was  anointed  King  of 
England,  and  received  from  the  archbishop's  hands  the  gohler 
crown  and  sceptre  of  England,  and  also  an  ancient  national  s}  ni- 
bol,  a  weighty  battle-ax.  He  had  truly  deep  and  speedy  need  <»f 
tliib  significant  part  of  the  insignia  of  Saxon  royally. 

A  messenger  Irom  Normandy  soon  an-ived  to  remind  Harolt^  of 
the  oath  which  he  had  s\\'orn  to  the  duke  "  with  his  mouth,  and 
his  hand  upon  good  and  holy  relics."  "  It  is  true,"  rephed  the 
•  Wace,  "  Roman  de  Rou."     I  have  nearly  followed  his  word.<* 


B  A  T  TL  E     OF     HASTING  S.  SS 

Saxoij  king,  "  that  I  took  an  oath  to  William  ;  but  i  look  it  un- 
der constraint :  I  promised  what  did  not  belong  to  r.ie — what  I 
could  not  in  any  way  hold  :  my  royalty  is  not  my  own  ;  I  could 
not  lay  it  down  against  the  will  of  the  countiy,  nor  can  I,  agiSnst 
the  will  of  the  country,  take  a  foreign  wife.  As  for  my  sistur, 
whom  the  duke  claims  that  he  may  marry  her  to  one  of  his  chiefs, 
she  has  died  within  the  year  ;  would  he  have  me  send  her  corpse  ?" 

William  sent  another  message,  which  met  with  a  similar  an- 
swer ;  and  then  the  duke  published  far  and  wide  through  Chris- 
tendom what  he  termed  the  perjury  and  bad  faith  of  his  rival, 
and  proclaimed  his  intention  of  asserting  his  rights  by  the  sword 
before  the  year  should  expire,  and  of  pursuing  and  punishing  the 
perjurer  even  in  those  places  where  he  thought  he  stood  most 
strongly  and  most  securely. 

Before,  however,  he  commenced  hostilities,  William,  with  deep- 
laid  policy,  submitted  his  claims  to  the  decision  of  the  pope.  Har 
old  refused  to  acknowledge  this  tribunal,  or  to  answer  before  an 
Italian  priest  for  his  title  as  an  English  king.  After  a  formal  ex- 
amination of  William's  complaints  by  the  pope  and  the  cardinals, 
it  was  solemnly  adjudged  at  Rome  that  England  belonged  to  the 
Norman  duke  ;  and  a  bamier  was  sent  to  WiUiam  from  the  Holy 
See,  which  the  pope  himself  had  consecrated  and  blessed  for  the  in- 
vasion of  this  island.  The  clergy  throughout  the  Continent  were 
now  assiduous  and  energetic  in  preaching  up  William's  enterprise 
as  undertaken  in  the  cause  of  God.  Besides  these  spiritual  arms 
(the  effect  of  which  in  the  eleventh  century  must  not  be  measured 
by  the  philosophy  or  the  indifi'erentism  of  the  nineteenth),  the  Nor- 
man duke  applied  all  the  energies  of  his  mind  and  body,  all  the 
resources  of  his  duchy,  and  all  the  influence  he  possessed  among 
vassals  or  allies,  to  the  collection  of  "  the  most  remarkable  and 
formidable  armament  which  the  Western  nations  had  witness- 
ed."* All  the  adventurous  spirits  of  Christendom  flocked  to  the 
holy  banner,  under  which  Duke  Wilham,  the  most  renowned 
knight  and  sagest  general  of  the  age,  promised  to  lead  them  to 
j^j'iy  and  wealth  in  the  fair  domains  of  England,  His  army  wa« 
Elicd  with  the  chivalry  of  Continental  Europe,  all  eager  to  save 
their  souls  by  fighting  at  the  pope's  bidding,  eager  to  signalize 
their  valor  m  so  great  an  enterprise,  and  eager  also  for  the  pay 
And  the  plunder  which  William  liberally  promised.  But  the  Nor- 
*  Str  James  Mackintosh's  "History  of  England  '"  vol  i.,  p  97. 


190  BATTLE     OF     HiSTINGS. 

mans  themselves  wert  the  pith  and  the  flower  of  the  army,  and 
WilHam  himself  was  the  strongest,  the  sagest,  and  the  iierceBt 
spirit  of  them  all. 

Throughout  the  spring  and  summer  of  1066,  all  the  sea-porta 
of  Normandy,  Picardy,  and  Brittany  rang  with  the  husy  gound 
lof  preparation.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Channel  King  Ha- 
rold collected  the  army  and  the  fleet  with  which  he  hoped  to 
crush  the  southern  invaders.  But  the  unexpected  attack  of  King 
Harald  Hardrada  of  Norway  upon  another  part  of  England  dis- 
concerted the  skillful  measures  which  the  Saxon  had  taken 
against  the  menacing  armada  of  Duke  William. 

Harold's  renegade  brother,  Earl  Tostig,  had  excited  the  NorsR 
king  to  this  enterprise,  the  importance  of  which  has  naturallv 
been  eclipsed  by  the  superior  interest  attached  to  the  victoriou/" 
expedition  of  Duke  William,  but  which  was  on  a  scale  of  grand- 
eur which  the  Scandinavian  ports  had  rarely,  if  ever,  before  wit- 
nessed. Hardrada's  fleet  consisted  of  two  hundred  Avar  ships  an6 
three  hundred  other  vessels,  and  all  the  best  warriors  of  Norway 
were  in  his  host.  He  sailed  first  to  the  Orkneys,  where  many  of 
the  islanders  joined  him,  and  then  to  Yorkshire.  After  a  severe 
conflict  near  York,  he  completely  routed  Earls  Edwin  and  Mor- 
car,  the  governors  of  Northumbria.  The  city  of  York  opened  its 
gates,  and  all  the  country,  from  the  Tyne  to  the  Humber,  sub- 
mitted to  him.  The  tidings  of  the  defeat  of  Edwin  and  Morcar 
compelled  Harold  to  leave  his  position  on  the  southern  coast,  and 
move  instantly  against  the  Norwegians.  By  a  remarkably  rapid 
march  ho  reached  Yorkshire  in  four  days,  and  took  the  Norse 
king  and  his  confederates  by  surprise.  Nevertheless,  the  battle 
which  ensued,  and  which  was  fought  near  Stamford  Bridge,  was 
desperate,  and  was  long  doubtful.  Unable  to  break  the  ranks 
of  the  Norwegian  phalanx  by  force,  Harold  at  length  temj'ted 
tliern  to  quit  their  close  order  by  a  pretended  flight.  Then  tlje 
English  columns  burst  in  among  them,  and  a  carnage  ensued, 
.'he  extent  of  which  may  be  judged  of  by  the  exhaustion  and  in 
activity  of  Norway  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  afterward.  King 
Harald  Hardrada,  and  all  the  flower  of  his  nobility,  perished  on 
the  25t,h  of  September,  1066,  at  Stamford  Bridge,  a  battle  which 
was  a  Flodden  to  Norway. 

Harold'*  victory  was  splendid  ;  bui  he  ha.d  bought  it  dearly 
by  (hf  fall  of  many  of  his  best  officers  and  men,  and  still  raor« 


D  A  T  r  L  t     OF     H  A  S  T  I  .\  CJ  S.  191 

u.:a/.y  by  the  opportunity  which  Duke  William  had  gained  of 
eflccting  an  unopj)osed  lauding  on  the  Sussex  coast.  The  whole 
ol'  William's  shijjping  had  assemhled  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dive, 
a  little  river  hetwoen  the  Seine  and  the  Orne,  as  early  as  the 
middle  of  August.  The  army  which  he  had  collected  amounted 
to  fifty  thousand  knights,  and  ten  thousand  soldiers  of  inferior 
degree.  Many  of  the  knights  were  mounted,  but  many  must 
hav3  served  on  foot,  as  it  is  hardly  possible  to  believe  that  Wil- 
liam could  have  found  transports  for  the  conveyance  of  fifty  thou- 
Band  war-horses  across  the  Channel.  P'or  a  long  time  the  winds 
were  adverse,  and  the  duke  employed  the  interval  that  passed 
btforc  he  could  set  sail  in  completing  the  organization  and  in 
improving  the  discipline  of  his  amiy,  which  he  seems  to  have 
brought  into  the  same  state  of  perfection  as  wari  seven  centuries 
and  a  half  afterward  the  boast  of  another  army  assembled  on  the 
same  coast,  and  which  Napoleon  designed  (but  providentially  in 
vain)  for  a  similar  descent  upon  England. 

It  was  not  till  the  approach  of  the  equinox  that  the  wind  veer- 
ed from  the  northeast  to  the  west,  and  gave  the  Normans  an  op- 
portunity of  quitting  the  weary  shores  of  the  Dive.  They  eager 
ly  embarked,  and  set  sail,  but  the  wind  soon  freshened  to  a  gale, 
and  drove  them  along  the  French  coast  to  St.Valery,  where  the 
greater  part  of  them  found  shelter  ;  but  many  of  their  vessels 
were  Avrecked,  and  the  whole  coast  of  Normandy  was  strewn 
with  the  bodies  of  the  drowned.  William's  army  began  to  grow 
discouraged  and  averse  to  the  enterprise,  which  the  very  elemerits 
thus  seemed  to  fight  against ;  though,  in  reality,  the  northeast 
wind,  which  had  cooped  them  so  long  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dive, 
and  the  western  gale,  which  had  forced  them  into  St.  Valery, 
W(n-e  the  best  possible  friends  to  the  invad'^rs.  They  prevented 
the  Normans  from  crossing  the  Channel  until  the  Saxon  king 
and  his  army  of  defense  had  been  called  away  from  the  Sussex 
coast  to  encounter  Harald  Hardrada  in  Yorkshire  ;  and  also  until 
f\  formidable  English  fleet,  which  by  King  Harold's  orders  had 
be'."n  cruising  in  the  Channel  to  intercept  the  Normans,  had  been 
cbligi;d  to  dispersb  temporarily  for  the  purpose  oi"  refitting  and 
taking  in  fresh  stores  of  provisions. 

Duke  William  used  every  expedient  to  reanimate  the  drooping 
spirits  of  his  men  at  St.Valery  ;  and  at  last  he  caused  the  body 
of  the  patron  saint  ol  the  place  to  be  exhumed  and  carried  in 


I 92  BATTLEOFHASTINU. 

eolemii  procession,  while  the  whole  assemblage  of  soldiers,  mar 
iners,  and  appurtenant  priests  implored  the  saint's  intercession 
for  a  change  of  wind.  That  very  night  the  wind  veered,  and 
enabled  the  mediaeval  Agamemnon  to  quit  his  Aulis. 

With  full  sails,  and  a  following  southern  breeze,  the  Norman 
Armada  left  the  Fiench  shores  and  steered  for  England.  The 
invaders  crossed  an  undefended  sea,  and  found  an  undefended 
Roast.  It  was  in  Pevensey  Bay,  in  Sussex,  at  Bulverhithe,  be- 
tween the  castle  of  Pevensey  and  Hastings,  that  the  last  conquer- 
ors of  this  island  landed  on  the  29th  of  September,  1066. 

Harold  was  at  York,  rejoicing  over  his  recent  victory,  which 
had  delivered  England  from  her  ancient  Scandinavian  foes,  and  re- 
settling the  governn^.ont  of  the  counties  which  Harald  Hardrada 
had  overrun,  when  the  tidings  reached  him  that  Duke  William 
of  Normandy  and  his  host  had  landed  on  the  Sussex  shore.  Ha- 
rold instantly  hurried  southward  to  meet  this  long-expected  ene- 
my. The  severe  loss  which  his  army  had  sustained  in  the  battle 
with  the  Norwegians  must  have  made  it  impossible  for  many  of 
his  veteran  troops  to  accompany  him  in  his  forced  march  to  Lon- 
don, and  thenee  to  Sussex.  He  halted  at  the  capital  only  six 
days,  and  during  that  time  gave  orders  for  collecting  forces  from 
the  southern  and  midland  counties,  and  also  directed  his  fleet  to 
reassemble  ofl'  the  Sussex  coast.  Harold  was  well  received  in 
London,  and  his  summons  to  arms  w^as  promptly  obeyed  by  citi- 
zen, by  thane,  by  sokman,  and  by  ceorl,  for  he  had  shown  him- 
self, during  his  brief  reign,  a  just  and  wise  king,  affable  to  all 
men,  active  for  the  good  of  his  country,  and  (in  the  words  of  the 
old  historian)  sparing  himself  from  no  fatigue  by  land  or  by  sea.* 
He  might  have  gathered  a  much  more  numerous  army  than  that 
of  William  ;  but  his  recent  victory  had  made  him  over-confident, 
and  he  was  irritated  by  the  reports  of  the  country  being  ravaged 
by  the  invaders.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  had  collected  a  small 
army  in  London,  he  marched  off  toward  the  coast,  pressing  for* 
ward  as  rapidly  as  his  men  could  traverse  Surrey  and  Sussex,  in 
the  hope  of  taking  the  Normans  unawares,  as  he  had  recently, 
by  a  similar  forced  march,  succeeded  in  surprising  the  Norwe- 
gians. But  he  had  now  to  deal  with  a  foe  equally  brave  witlj 
Harald  Hardrada,  and  far  more  skillful  and  wary. 

•  Sei  Roger  de  Hoveden  and  William  of  Malmesbiry,  cited  inTbierrf 
Vtok  ill. 


BAl'TH:    ut     It  .\  2  T '.  r.  Q».  193 

The  old  Nonnau  chroniclers  describe  the  preparations  of  Will- 
iam on  his  landing  with  a  graphic  vigor,  which  would  be  wholly 
l.'/st  by  transfusing  their  racy  Norinan  couplets  and  terse  Latin 
l»rose  into  the  current  style  of  modern  history.  It  is  best  to  fcl 
low  them  closely,  thoutrh  at  the  expense  of  much  quamtncss  and 
occasional  uncouthness  of  expression.  They  tell  us  how  Duke 
William's  own  ship  was  the  first  of  the  Norman  Raet.  Tt  was 
called  the  Mora,  and  was  the  gift  of  his  duchess,  Matilda.  On 
the  head  of  the  shipj^in  the  front,  which  mariners  call  the  prow, 
there  was  a  brazen  child  bearing  an  arrow  with  a  bended  bow. 
His  face  was  turned  toward  England,  and  thither  he  looked,  as 
though  he  was  about  to  shoot.  The  breeze  became  soft  and  sweet, 
and  the  sea  was  smooth  for  their  landing.  The  ships  ran  on  dry 
land,  and  each  ranged  by  the  others  side.  There  you  might  see 
the  good  sailors,  the  sergeants,  and  squires  sally  forth  and  unload 
the  ships  ;  cast  the  anchors,  haul  the  ropes,  bear  out  sliields  and 
saddles,  and  land  the  war-horses  and  the  palfreys.  The  archers 
came  forth,  and  touched  land  the  first,  each  with  his  bow  strung, 
and  with  his  quiver  full  of  arrows  slung  at  his  side.  All  were 
shaven  and  shorn  ;  and  all  clad  in  short  garments,  ready  to  at- 
tack, to  shoot,  to  wheel  about  and  skirmish.  All  stood  well 
equipped,  and  of  good  courage  for  the  fight ;  and  they  scoured  the 
whole  shore,  but  found  not  an  armed  man  there.  After  the  arch- 
ers had  thus  gone  forth,  the  knights  landed  all  armed,  with  theii 
hauberks  on,  their  shields  slung  at  their  necks,  and  their  hel- 
mets laced.  They  formed  together  on  the  shore,  each  armed, 
and  mounted  on  his  war-horse  ;  all  had  their  swords  girded  on, 
and  rode  forward  into  the  country  with  their  lances  raised.  Then 
the  carpenters  landed,  who  had  great  axes  in  their  hands,  anc 
planes  and  adzes  hung  at  their  sides.  They  took  counsel  togeth- 
er, and  sought  for  a  good  spot  to  place  a  castle  on.  They  had 
brought  with  them  in  the  fleet  three  wooden  castles  from  Nor- 
mandy in  pieces,  all  ready  for  framing  together,  and  they  took 
tlie  materials  of  one  of"  these  out  of  the  ships,  all  shaped  and 
))ierced  to  receive  the  pins  which  they  had  brought  cut  and  ready 
in  large  baiTels  ;  and  before  evening  had  set  in,  they  had  finished 
a  sood  fort  on  the  English  ground,  and  there  they  placed  thc'r 
stores.  All  then  ate  and  drank  enough,  and  were  right  glad  that 
iliey  were  ashore. 

"When  Duke  William  himself  landed,  as  he  stepped  on  the  shcie, 

I 


194  BATTLE     OF     HASIINGS. 

he  slipped,  and  fell  forward  upon  his  two  hands.  Forthwith  a% 
raised  a  loud  cry  of  distress.  "  An  evil  sign,"  ssaid  they,  •'  ia 
here."  But  he  cried  out  lustily,  "  See,  my  lords,  hy  the  splendoi 
of  God,*  I  have  taken  possession  of  England  withhoth  my  hands. 
It  is  now  mine,  and  what  is  mine  is  yours." 

The  next  day  they  marched  along  the  sea-shore  to  Hastings. 
Near  that  place  the  duke  fortified  a  camp,  and  set  up  the  two 
other  wooden  castles.  The  foragers,  and  those  who  looked  out 
foi  booty,  seized  all  the  clothing  and  provisions  they  could  find, 
lest  what  had  been  brought  by  the  ships  should  fail  them.  And 
the  English  were  to  be  seen  fleeing  before  them,  driving  ofi'  theii 
cattle,  and  quitting  their  houses.  Many  took  shelter  in  burying- 
places,  and  even  there  they  were  in  grievous  alarm. 

Besides  the  marauders  from  the  Norman  camp,  strong  bodies 
of  cavalry  were  detached  by  William  into  the  country,  and  these, 
when  Harold  and  his  army  made  their  rapid  march  from  London 
southward,  fell  back  in  good  order  upon  the  main  body  of  the 
Nonnans,  and  reported  that  the  Saxon  king  was  rusliing  on  like 
a  madman.  But  Harold,  when  he  found  that  his  hopes  of  sur- 
prising his  adversary  were  vain,  changed  his  tactics,  and  halted 
about  seven  miles  from  the  Norman  lines.  He  sent  some  spies 
who  spoke  the  French  language,  to  examine  the  number  and 
preparations  of  the  enemy,  who,  on  their  return,  related  with  as- 
tonishment that  there  were  more  priests  in  William's  camp  than 
there  were  fighting  men  in  the  English  army.  They  had  mis- 
taken for  priests  all  the  Norman  soldiers  who  had  short  hair  and 
shaven  chins,  for  the  English  laymen  were  then  accustomed  tc 
wear  long  hair  and  mustachios.  Harold,  who  knew  the  Nor 
man  usages,  smiled  at  tneir  words,  and  said,  "  Those  whom  you 
have  seen  in  such  numbers  are  not  priests,  but  stout  soldiers,  as 
they  will  soon  make  us  feel." 

Harold's  aiiny  was  far  inferior  in  number  to  that  of  the  Nor- 
mans, and  some  of  his  captains  advised  him  to  retreat  upon  Lon- 
don, and  lay  waste  the  country,  so  as  to  starve  down  the  strength 
of  the  invaders.  The  policy  thus  recommended  was  unquesLioii- 
ably  the  wisest,  for  the  Saxon  fleet  had  now  reass(!mbled,  and 
intercepted  all  William's  communications  with  Normandy  ;  and 
B8  soon  as  his  stores  of  provisions  were  exhausted,  he  must  have 
moved  forward  upon  London,  where  Harold,  at  the  head  of  the 
*  William's  customary  oa'h. 


B  A  T  T  L  E     O  F     H  A  9  T  I  N  fi  S.  1 9.1 

full  military  strength  of  the  kingdom,  could  have  defied  his  as 
eault,  and  probably  might  have  witnessed  his  rival's  destruction 
by  faiuinc^  and  disease,  without  having  to  strike  a  single  blow- 
But  Harold's  bold  blood  M'as  up,  and  his  kindly  heart  could  not 
endure  to  inflict  on  his  South  Saxon  subjects  even  the  temporary 
rrjisery  of  wasting  the  country.  "  He  would  not  burn  houses  and 
villages,  neither  would  he  take  away  the  substance  of  his  people." 

Harold's  brothers,  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  were  with  him  in  the 
camp,  and  Gurth  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  absent  himself 
from  the  battle.  The  incident  shows  how  well  devised  had  been 
William's  scheme  of  bmding  Harold  by  the  oath  on  the  holy  rel- 
ics. "  My  brother,"  said  the  young  Saxon  prince,  "  thou  can.st 
not  deny  that  either  by  force  or  free  will  thou  hast  made  Duke 
William  an  oath  on  the  bodies  of  saints.  Why  then  risk  thyself 
in  the  battle  with  a  perjury  upon  thee  ?  To  us,  who  have  sworn 
nothing,  this  is  a  holy  and  a  j  ust  war,  for  we  are  fighting  for  our 
country.  Leave  us  then  alone  to  fight  this  battle,  and  he  who 
has  the  right  will  win."  Harold  replied  that  he  would  not  look 
on  while  others  risked  their  lives  for  liim.  Men  would  hold  him 
a  coward,  and  blame  him  for  sending  his  best  friends  where  he 
dared  not  go  himself.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to  fight,  and  to 
fight  in  person  ;  but  he  was  still  too  good  a  general  to  be  the  as- 
sailant in  the  action ;  and  he  posted  his  army  with  great  skill 
along  a  ridge  of  rising  ground  which  opened  southward,  and  was 
covered  on  the  back  by  an  extensive  wood.  He  strengthened 
his  position  by  a  palisade  of  stakes  and  osier  hurdles,  and  there  he 
said  he  would  defend  himself  against  whoever  sliould  seek  him 

The  ruins  of  Battle  Abbey  at  this  hour  attest  the  place  where 
Harold's  army  was  posted  ;  and  the  high  altar  of  the  abbey  stood 
on  the  very  spot  where  Harold's  own  standard  was  planted  dur- 
ing the  fight,  and  where  the  carnage  was  the  thickest.  Imme- 
diately after  his  victory,  William  vowed  to  build  an  abbey  on 
the  site  ;  and  a  fair  and  stately  pile  soon  rose  there,  where  for 
many  ages  the  monks  prayed  and  said  masses  for  the  souls  of 
those  who  wer3  slain  in  the  battle,  whence  the  abbey  took  ita 
name.  Before  that  time  the  place  was  called  Senlac.  Little 
of  the  ancient  edifice  now  remains  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  trace  in  the 
park  and  the  neighborhood  the  scenes  of  the  chief  incidents  in  the 
action  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  deny  the  generalship  shown  by 
Harold  in  stationing  his  men   especially  when  wp  bear  in  mind 


rjt)  B  A  r  TLE     OF     HASTINGS. 

that  he  -was  deficient  in  cavalr}^  the  arm  in  wliich  his  adversa 
ry's  main  strenglh  consisted. 

"William's  only  chance  of  safety  lay  in  bringing  on  a  general 
engagement ;  and  he  joyfully  advanced  his  army  from  their  camp 
on  the  hill  over  Hastings,  nearer  to  the  Saxon  position.  But  he 
neglected  no  means  of  weakening  his  opponent,  and  renewed  hia 
summonses  and  demands  on  Harold  with  an  ostentatious  ^v  jf 
sanctity  and  moderation. 

"  A  monk,  named  Hugues  Maigrot,  came  in  William's  name 
to  call  upon  the  Saxon  king  to  do  one  of  three  things — either  to 
resign  his  royalty  in  farvor  of  William,  or  to  refer  it  to  the  arbi- 
tration of  the  pope  to  decide  which  of  the  two  ought  to  be  king,  or 
to  let  it  be  deterrrined  by  the  issue  of  a  single  combat.  Harold 
abruptly  replied,  '  I  will  not  resign  my  title,  I  will  not  refer  't  to 
the  pope,  nor  will  I  accept  the  single  combat.'  He  was  far  from 
being  deficient  in  bravery  ;  but  he  was  no  more  at  liberty  to  stake 
the  crown  which  he  had  received  from  a  whole  people  in  the 
chance  of  a  duel,  than  to  deposit  it  in  the  hands  of  an  Italian 
priest.  William,  not  at  all  ruffled  by  the  Saxon's  refusal,  but 
steadily  pursuing  the  course  of  his  calculated  measures,  sent  the 
Norman  monk  again,  after  giving  him  these  instructions  :  '  Go 
and  tell  Harold  that  if  he  will  keep  his  former  compact  with  me, 
[  will  leave  to  him  all  the  country  which  is  beyond  the  Humber, 
and  will  give  his  brother  Gurth  all  the  lands  which  Godwin  held. 
If  he  still  persist  in  refusing  my  oilers,  then  thou  shalt  tell  hinr., 
before  all  his  people,  that  he  is  a  perjurer  and  a  liar ;  that  he 
and  all  who  shall  support  him  are  excommunicated  by  the  mouth 
of  the  pope,  and  that  the  bull  to  that  efiect  is  in  my  hands.' 

"  Hugues  Maigrot  delivered  this  message  in  a  solemn  tone ; 
and  the  Norman  chronicle  says  that  at  the  word  exco7nnmnica- 
tion,  the  Enghsh  chiefs  looked  at  one  another  as  if  some  grea 
danger  were  impending.  One  of  them  then  spoke  as  follows 
'  We  must  fight,  whatever  may  be  the  danger  to  us  ;  for  what 
we  have  to  consider  is  not  whether  we  shall  accept  and  receive 
a  new  lord,  as  if  our  king  M'ere  dead  ;  the  case  is  quite  otherwise. 
The  Norman  has  given  our  lands  to  his  captains,  to  his  knights, 
to  all  his  p(!ople,  the  greater  part  of  whom  have  already  done 
homage  to  him  for  them  :  they  will  all  look  for  their  gift  if  their 
■duke  become  our  king  ;  and  he  himself  is  bound  to  deliver  up  to 
\hern  our  goods  our  wives,  and  our  daughters  :  all  is  promisc<l 


15  A  T  T  L  E     OF     HASTINGS.  197 

to  them  bffbreliand.  They  come,  not  only  to  ruin  \is,  but  1o  rTun 
uui'  (lescendauts  also,  and  to  take  from  us  the  couutry  ot  our  au- 
cestors.  And  what  shall  we  do — whither  shall  we  go,  when  we 
have  no  longer  a  country  V  The  English  promised,  by  a  unan- 
imous oath,  to  make  neither  peace,  nor  truce,  nor  treaty  with  the 
invader,  but  to  die,  or  drive  away  the  Normans."* 

The  13th  of  October  was  occupied  in  these  negotiations,  and 
dt  night  the  duke  announced  to  his  men  that  the  next  day  would 
be  the  day  of  battle.  That  night  is  said  to  have  been  passed  by 
the  two  armies  in  very  diflerent  manners.  The  Saxon  soldiers 
spent  it  in  joviality,  singing  their  national  songs,  and  draining 
huge  horns  of  ale  and  wine  round  their  camp-fires.  The  Nor- 
mans, when  they  had  looked  to  their  arms  and  horses,  confessed 
themselves  to  the  priests  with  whom  their  camp  was  thronged, 
and  received  the  sacrament  by  thousands  at  a  time. 

On  Saturday,  the  14th  of  October,  was  fought  the  great  battle. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  compose  a  narrative  of  its  principal  inci- 
dents from  the  historical  ini'ormation  which  we  possess,  especially 
if  aided  by  an  examination  of  the  ground.  But  it  is  far  better  to 
adopt  the  spirit-stirring  words  of  the  old  chroniclers,  who  wrote 
while  the  recollections  of  the  battle  were  yet  fresh,  and  while 
the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the  combatants  yet  glowed  in  the 
bosoms  of  living  luen.  Robert  Wace,  the  Norman  poet,  who 
presented  his  "  Roman  de  Rou"  to  our  Henry  11. ,  is  the  most  pic- 
turesque and  animated  of  the  old  writers,  and  from  him  we  can 
obtain  a  more  vivid  and  full  description  of  the  conflict  than  even 
the  most  brilliant  romance-writer  of  the  present  time  can  supply. 
We  have  also  an  antique  memorial  of  the  battle  more  to  be  re- 
lied on  than  either  chronicler  or  poet  (and  which  confirms  Wace'a 
narrative  remarkably)  in  the  celebrated  Bayeux  tapestry  which 
represents  the  principal  scenes  of  Duke  William's  expedition,  and 
of  the  circumstances  connected  with  it,  in  minute,  though  occa 
sionally  grotesque  details,  and  which  was  undoubtedly  the  pro- 
duction of  the  same  age  in  which  the  battle  took  place,  whether 
we  admit  or  reject  the  legend  that  dueen  Matilda  and  tha  ladicH 
of  her  court  wrought  it  with  their  own  hands  in  hor  or  of  the 
toyal  conqueror. 

Let  us  therefore  suffer  the  old  Norman  chronicler  tc  fransporl 
rur  imaginations  to  the  fair  Sussex  scenery  northwest  ol  Hastjngs. 
*  Thierry. 


198  B  A  T  'I   '.  E      O  F      II  A  S  1  1  i\  U  a. 

as  it  appeared  on  the  moniiug  cf  the  fourteenth  of  Ocljbor,  sev 
ea  b  mdred  and  eighty- five  years  ago.  The  Norman  host  is  pcur* 
ing  forth  from  its  tents,  and  eacli  troop  and  each  company  is  fonn- 
ing  fast  under  the  banner  of  its  leader.  The  masses  have  been 
Bung,  which  were  finished  betimes  in  the  morning  ;  the  barons 
have  all  assembled  round  Duke  William;  and  the  duke  has  or- 
dered that  the  army  shall  be  formed  in  three  divisions,  so  as  to 
make  the  attack  upon  the  Saxon  position  in  three  places.  The 
duke  stood  on  a  hill  where  he  could  best  see  his  men ;  the  bar- 
ons surrounded  him,  and  he  spake  to  them  proudly.  He  told 
them  how  he  trusted  them,  and  how  all  that  he  gained  should 
be  theirs,  and  how  sure  he  felt  of  conquest,  for  in  all  the  world 
there  was  not  so  brave  an  amiy,  or  such  good  men  and  true  as 
were  then  forming  around  him.  Then  they  cheered  him  in  turn, 
and  cried  out,  "  '  You  will  not  see  one  coward  ;  none  here  will 
fear  to  die  for  love  of  you,  if  need  be.'  And  he  answered  them, 
'  I  thank  you  well.  For  God's  sake,  spare  not ;  strike  hard  at 
the  beginning  ;  stay  not  to  take  spoil ;  all  the  booty  shall  be  in 
common,  and  there  will  be  plenty  for  every  one.  There  will  be 
no  safety  in  asking  quarter  or  in  flight;  the  English  will  nevei 
love  or  spare  a  Norman.  Felons  they  were,  and  felons  they  are  ; 
false  they  were,  and  false  they  will  be.  Show  no  weakness  to- 
ward them,  for  they  will  have  no  pity  on  you  :  neither  the  cow- 
ard for  running  well,  nor  the  bold  man  for  smiting  well,  will  be 
the  better  liked  by  the  English,  nor  will  any  be  the  more  spared 
on  either  account.  You  may  fly  to  the  sea,  but  you  can  fly  no 
farther;  you  will  find  neither  ships  nor  bridge  there;  there  will 
be  no  sailors  to  receive  you  ;  and  the  English  Avill  overtake  you 
there,  and  slay  you  in  your  shame.  More  of  you  will  die  in  flight 
than  in  battle.  Then,  as  flight  will  not  secure  you,  fight,  and 
you  will  conquer.  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  victory  :  we  are  como 
for  glory  ;  the  victory  is  in  our  hands,  and  we  may  make  sure  of 
obtaining  it  if  we  so  please.'  As  the  duke  was  speaking  thus 
and  would  yet  have  spoken  more,  William  Fitz  Osber  rode  up 
with  his  horse  all  coated  with  iron  :  '  Sire,'  said  he,  '  we  tarry 
here  too  long  ;  let  us  all  arm  ourselves.     AUon&!  allons  !' 

"  Then  all  went  to  their  tents,  and  armed  themselves  as  they 
best  might ;  and  the  duke  was  very  busy,  giving  every  one  hii 
orders  ;  and  he  was  courteous  to  all  the  vassals,  giving  awaj 
many  arms  and  horses  to  them.     When  he  prepared  to  arm  him 


BATTLE      UF     II  A  S  T  1 -N  U  5.  »  9^ 

sell",  lie  culled  (irnt  lor  his  good  hauberk,  and  a  inaii  brought  it 
ou  hib  arm,  and  placed  it  belbre  him,  but  in  putting  his  head  in, 
to  get  it  on,  h6  unawares  turned  it  the  wrong  way,  with  the  back 
part  in  front.  lie  soon  changed  it ;  but  when  he  saw  toat  those 
who  stood  by  were  sorely  alarmed,  he  said,  '  I  have  seen  many 
a  man  who,  if  such  a  thing  had  happened  to  him,  would  not 
have  borne  arms,  or  entered  the  field  the  same  day  ;  but  I  never 
believed  in  omens,  and  I  never  will.  I  trust  in  God,  tor  he  does 
in  all  things  his  pleasure,  and  ordains  what  is  to  come  to  pass 
according  to  his  will.  I  have  never  liked  fortune-tellers,  nor  be- 
lieved in  diviners  ;  but  I  commend  myself  to  Our  Lady.  Let  not 
this  mischance  give  you  trouble.  The  hauberk  which  was  turned 
wrong,  and  then  set  right  by  me,  signifies  that  a  change  will 
arise  out  of  the  matter  which  we  are  now  stirring.  You  shall 
see  the  name  of  duke  changed  into  king.  Yea,  a  king  shall  I 
be,  who  hitherto  have  been  but  duke.'  Then  he  crossed  him- 
self, and  straightway  took  his  hauberk,  stooped  his  head,  and  put 
it  on  aright  ;  and  laced  his  helmet,  and  girt  on  his  sword,  which 
a  varlet  brought  him.  Then  the  duke  called  for  his  good  horse 
— a  better  could  not  be  found.  It  had  been  sent  him  by  a  king 
of  Spain,  out  of  very  great  friendship.  Neither  arms  nor  the 
press  of  fighting  men  did  it  fear,  if  its  lord  spurred  it  on.  Wal 
ter  GifFard  brought  it.  The  duke  stretched  out  his  hand,  took 
the  reins,  put  loot  in  stirrup,  and  mounted  ;  and  the  good  horse 
pawed,  pranced,  reared  himself  up,  and  curveted.  The  Viscount 
of  Toarz  saw  how  the  duke  bore  himself  in  arms,  and  said  to  his 
people  that  M^ere  around  him,  '  Never  have  I  seen  a  man  so  fairly 
armed,  nor  one  who  rode  so  gallantly,  or  bore  his  arms,  or  became 
his  hauberk  so  well ;  neither  any  one  who  bore  his  lance  so  grace- 
fully, or  sat  his  horse  and  managed  him  so  nobly.  There  is  no 
such  knight  under  heaven  I  a  fair  count  he  is,  and  fair  king  he 
will  be.  Let  him  fight,  and  he  shall  overcome  ;  shame  be  to  the 
man  who  shall  fail  him.' 

"  Then  the  duke  called  for  the  standard  which  the  pope  had 
Sin:  him,  and  he  who  bore  it  having  unfolded  it,  the  duke  tcck 
t  and  called  to  Raol  de  Conches.  '  Bear  my  standard,'  said  ho 
'  for  I  Avould  not  buv  do  you  right ;  by  right  and  by  ancestrj'  youi 
line  arc  standard-bearers  of  Normandy,  and  very  good  knights 
have  they  all  been.'  But  Raol  said  that  he  would  serve  the 
duke  thai  day  in  other  guise,  and  would  fight  the  i'aiglish  with 


;iOO  BATTLE     OF      EI  A  S  T  1  N  U  » 

his  hand  as  long  as  life  should  last.  Then  the  duke  bad»t  Gahiei 
Giffart  bear  the  standard.  But  he  was  old  and  white-headed, 
and  bade  the  duke  give  the  standaKl  to  some  younger  and  strong 
cr  man  to  carry.  Thexi  the  duke  said  fiercely,  '  By  the  sj)lendor 
of  God,  my  lords,  I  think  you  mean  to  betray  and  fail  me  in  this 
great  need.'  '  Sire,'  said  GilTart, '  not  so  I  we  have  done  no  trea- 
son, nor  dffl  I  refuse  from  any  felony  toward  you  ;  but  I  have  to 
lead  a  great  chivalry,  both  hired  men  and  the  men  of  my  fiei' 
Never  had  I  such  good  means  of  serving  you  as  I  now  have  ;  and 
if  God  please,  I  will  serve  you  ;  if  need  be,  I  will  die  for  you,  and 
will  give  my  owr.  heart  for  yours.' 

"  '  By  my  faith,'  quoth  the  duke,  '  I  always  loved  thee,  and 
now  I  love  thee  more  ;  if  I  survive  this  day,  thou  shalt  be  the 
better  for  it  all  thy  days.'  Then  he  called  out  a  knight,  whom 
he  had  heard  much  praised,  Tosteins  Fitz-K.ou  le  Blanc  by  name, 
whose  abode  was  at  Bec-en-Caux.  To  him  he  delivered  the 
standard  ;  and  Tosteins  took  it  right  cheerfully,  and  bowed  low 
to  him  in  thanks,  and  bore  it  gallantly,  and  with  good  heart. 
His  kindred  still  have  quittance  of  all  service  for  their  inherit- 
ance on  this  account,  and  their  heirs  are  entitled  so  to  hold  their 
inheritance  forever. 

"  William  sat  on  his  war-horse,  and  called  out  Rogier,  whom 
they  call  De  Montgomeri.  '  I  rely  much  on  you,'  said  he  ;  '  lead 
your  men  thitherward,  and  attack  them  from  that  side.  Will- 
iam, the  son  of  Osber,  the  seneschal,  a  right  good  vassal,  shall 
go  with  you  and  help  in  the  attack,  and  you  shall  have  the  men 
of  Boilogne  and  Poix,  and  all  my  soldiers.  Alain  Fergert  and 
Ameri  shall  attack  on  the  other  side  ;  they  shall  le-.  d  the  Poite- 
vins  and  the  Bretons,  and  all  the  barons  of  Maine  ;  and  I,  w'th 
my  own  great  men,  my  friends  and  kindred,  will  fight  in  the 
middle  throng,  where  the  battle  shall  be  the  hottest. 

"  The  barons,  and  knights,  and  men-at-arms  were  all  now 
armed  ;  the  foot-soldiers  were  well  equipped,  each  bearing  bow 
and  sword  ;  on  their  heads  were  caps,  and  to  their  feet  werft 
bciund  buskins.  Some  had  good  hides  which  they  had  bound 
round  their  bodies  ;  and  many  were  ilad  in  frocks,  and  bad  quiv- 
ere  and  bows  hung  to  their  girdles.  Tiie  knights  liad  hauberks 
and  swords,  bouts  of  .-teel,  and  sliining  helmets;  shields  at  tbeii 
necks,  and  in  their  hands  lances.  And  all  had  their  cognizances, 
»o  that  each  mierht  know  his  fellow,  and  Norman  might  not  strik* 


BATTLE      OF     HASTINGS.  20l 

N  /rraan,  nor  Frenchman  kill  his  countryman  by  mistake.  Those 
I'll  toot  led  the  way,  with  serried  ranks,  bearing  their  bows.  The 
knights  rode  next,  support  ng  the  archers  from  behind.  Thu." 
both  horse  and  foot  kept  their  course  and  order  of  march  as  they 
began,  in  close  ranks  at  a  gentle  pace,  that  the  one  migrht  no} 
l>ass  or  separate  from  the  other.  All  went  lirmly  and  compactly; 
bearing  themselves  gallantly. 

'•  Harold  had  summoned  his  men,  earls,  barons,  and  vavassors, 
iiom  the  castles  and  the  cities,  from  the  ports,  the  villages,  and 
boroughs.  The  peasants  were  also  called  together  from  the  vil- 
lages, bearing  such  arms  as  they  found  ;  clubs  and  great  picks, 
iron  forks  and  stakes.  The  English  had  inclosed  the  place  where 
Harold  was  with  his  friends  and  the  barons  of  the  country  whom 
he  had  summoned  and  called  together. 

"  Those  of  London  had  come  at  once,  and  those  of  Kent,  of 
Hertfort,  and  of  Essesse  ;  those  of  Suree  and  Susesse,  of  St.  Ed- 
mund and  Sufoc  ;  of  Norwis  and  Norfoe  ;  of  Cantorbierre  and 
Stanfort  ;  Bedefort  and  Hundetone.  Tlie  men  of  Northanton 
also  came  ;  and  those  of  Eurowie  and  Bokinkeham,  of  Bed  and 
Notinkeham,  Lindesie  and  Nichole.  There  came  also  from  the 
west  all  who  heard  the  summons  ;  and  very  many  were  to  bo 
seen  coming  from  Salebiere  and  Dorset,  from  Bat  and  from  Sum- 
erset.  Many  came,  too,  from  about  Glocestre,  and  many  from 
Wirecestre,  fromWincestre,  Hontesire,  and  Brichesire;  and  many 
more  from  other  counties  that  we  have  not  named,  and  can  not, 
indeed,  recount.  All  who  could  bear  arms,  and  had  learned  the 
news  of  the  duke's  arrival,  came  to  defend  the  land.  But  none 
came  from  beyond  Humbre,  for  they  had  other  business  upon 
their  hands,  the  Danes  and  Tosti  having  much  damaged  and 
weakened  them. 

"  Harold  knew  that  the  Normans  would  come  and  attack  hiia 
hand  to  hand,  so  he  had  early  inclosed  the  field  in  which  ho 
placed  his  men.  He  made  them  ami  early,  and  range  them- 
ielves  for  the  battle,  he  himself  having  put  on  arms  and  equip- 
m.'ufs  that  became  such  a  lord.  The  duke,  he  said,  ought  to 
sec  k  him,  as  he  wanted  to  conquer  England  ;  and  it  became  him 
to  abide  the  p.ttack  who  had  to  defend  the  land.  He  command- 
ed the  people,  and  counseled  his  barons  to  keep  themselvBs  all 
together,  and  defend  themselves  in  a  body  ;  for  if  they  once  sep- 
arated   they  would  with  difficulty  recover  themselves.     '  Tha 

I  2 


i02  BATTLE     OF     HAariNgS). 

Normans,'  rfaid  he,  '  arc-  good  vassals,  valiant  on  foot  and  on 
horseback  ;  good  knights  are  they  on  horseback,  and  "w  ell  used 
to  battle  :  all  is  lost  if  they  once  penetrate  our  ranks.  They 
have  brought  bug  lances  and  svi^ords,  but  you  have  pointed 
lances  and  keen-edged  bills  ;  and  I  do  not  expect  that  their  arm?! 
can  stand  against  yours.  Cleave  whenever  you  can  ;  it  w  U  be 
ill  done  if  you  spare  aught.' 

"  The  English  had  built  up  a  fence  before  them  with  ihcir 
shields,  and  with  ash  and  other  wood,  and  had  well  joined  and 
wattled  in  the  whole  work,  so  as  not  to  leave  even  a  crevice  ; 
and  thus  they  had  a  barricade  in  their  front,  through  which  any 
Norman  who  would  attack  them  must  first  pass.  Being  covered 
in  this  way  by  their  shields  and  barricades,  their  aim  was  to  de- 
fend themselves  ;  and  if  they  had  remained  steady  for  that  pur- 
pose, they  would  not  have  been  conquered  that  day ;  for  every 
Norman  who  made  his  way  in,  lost  his  life  in  dishonor,  either  by 
hatchet  or  bill,  by  club  or  other  weapon.  They  wore  short  and 
close  hauberks,  and  helmets  that  hung  over  their  garments. 
King  Harold  issued  orders,  and  made  proclamation  round,  that 
all  should  be  ranged  with  their  faces  toward  the  enemy,  and  that 
no  one  should  move  from  where  he  was,  so  that  whoever  came 
might  find  them  ready  ;  and  that  whatever  any  one,  be  he  Nor- 
man or  other,  should  do,  each  should  do  his  best  to  defend  his 
own  place.  Then  he  ordered  the  men  of  Kent  to  go  where  the 
Normans  were  likely  to  make  the  attack  ;  for  they  say  that  the 
men  of  Kent  are  entitled  to  strike  first ;  and  that  whenever  the 
k.'ng  goes  to  battle,  the  first  blow  belongs  to  them.  The  riglit 
of  the  men  of  London  is  to  guard  the  king's  body,  to  place  them- 
Bclves  around  him,  and  to  guard  his  standard  ;  and  they  were 
accordingly  placed  by  the  standard  to  watch  and  defend  it. 

"  When  Harold  had  made  all  ready,  and  given  his  orders,  he 
ijanie  into  the  midst  of  the  English,  and  dismounted  by  the  side 
of  the  standard  ;  Leofw.n  and  Gurth  his  brothers,  M'ere  with  him  ; 
and  around  him  he  bad  barons  enouga,  as  he  stood  by  his  standard, 
which  was,  in  truth,  a  noble  one,  sparkhng  Avith  gold  and  jre- 
cious  stones.  After  the  victory  William  sent  it  to  the  pope,  to 
prove  and  commemorate  his  great  conquest  and  glory.  The  En- 
glish stood  in  close  ranks,  ready  and  eager  for  the  fight ;  and 
Uiey,  moreover,  made  a  fosse,  wliich  v-ent  across  the  field,  guard' 
nig  oi'c  side  ^f  their  army. 


B  A  T  T  1.  V:     O  r     11  ACTING  s.  203 

'  Meanwhild  the  Nonniiiis  appeared  advancing  over  the  ridge 
»f  .\  rising  prouud,  and  the  first  division  of  their  troops  moved 
onward  along  the  hill  and  across  a  valley.  And  presently  an- 
other division,  still  larger,  came  in  sight,  close  following  upon  the 
first,  and  they  were  led  toward  another  part  of  the  field,  forming 
together  as  the  first  body  had  done.  And  while  Harold  saw  and 
examined  them,  and  Avas  pointing  them  out  to  Gurth.  a  fresh 
company  came  in  sight,  covering  all  the  plain  ;  and  in  the  midst 
of  them  was  raised  the  standard  that  came  from  Rome.  Nea' 
It  was  the  duke,  and  the  best  men  and  greatest  strength  of  the 
army  were  there.  The  good  knights,  the  good  vassals  and  brave 
warriors  were  there  ;  and  there  were  gathered  together  the  gen- 
tle barons,  the  good  archers,  and  the  men-at-arms,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  guard  the  duke,  and  range  themselves  around  him.  The 
youths  and  common  herd  of  the  camp,  whose  business  was  not 
to  join  in  the  battle,  but  to  take  care  of  the  harness  and  stores, 
moved  off  toward  a  rising  ground.  The  priests  and  the  clerks 
also  ascended  a  hill,  there  to  ofier  up  prayers  to  God,  and  watch 
the  event  of  the  battle. 

"  The  English  stood  firm  on  foot  in  close  ranks,  and  carried 
themselves  right  boldly.  Each  man  had  his  hauberk  on,  with 
bis  sword  girt,  and  his  shield  at  his  neck.  Great  hatchets  were 
also  slung  at  their  necks,  with  which  they  expected  to  strike 
heavy  blows. 

"  The  Normans  brought  on  the  three  divisions  of  their  army 
to  attack  at  different  places.  They  set  out  in  three  companies, 
and  in  three  companies  did  they  fight.  The  first  and  second  had 
come  up,  and  then  advanced  the  third,  which  was  the  greatest ; 
with  thai  came  the  duke  with  his  ovm  men,  and  all  moved  boldly 
''orward. 

"  As  soon  as  the  two  armies  were  in  full  view  of  each  othtT, 
great  noise  and  tumult  arose.  You  might  hear  the  sound  of 
many  tnimpets,  of  bugles,  and  of  homs  ;  and  then  you  might  see 
men  ranging  themselves  in  line,  lifting  their  shields,  raising  iheii 
lances,  bending  their  bows,  handling  their  arrows,  ready  for  as- 
fault  and  defense. 

"The  English  stood  steady  to  their  post,  the  Normans  still 
moved  on  ;  and  when  they  drew  near,  the  English  were  to  ba 
Bc«n  stirring  to  and  fro;  were  going  and  coming ;  troops  ranging 
thrmselves  in  order  ;  some  with  their  color  rising,  others  turning 


204  BATTLE     OF     HASTINUS. 

pale  ;  some  making  ready  tlieir  arms,  others  raising  thoii  ehields  ; 
the  brave  man  rousing  himself  to  fight,  the  coward  trembling  al 
the  approach  of"  danger. 

"  Then  Taillefer,  who  svug  right  m  ^U,  rode,  mounted  on  a  swil't 
horse,  before  the  duke,  singing  of  Charlemagne  and  of  Roland, 
of  Oliver,  and  the  peers  who  died  in  Roncesvalles.  And  w  hen 
th;y  drew  nigh  to  the  English,  'A  boon,  sire  I'  cried  Taillefer; 
'  I  have  long  served  you,  and  you  owe  me  for  all  such  service. 
To-day,  so  please  you,  you  shall  repay  it.  I  ask  as  my  guerdon, 
and  beseech  you  for  it  earnestly,  that  you  will  allow  me  to  strike 
the  first  blow  in  the  battle  I'  And  tte  duke  answered,  '  I  grant 
it.'  Then  Taillefer  put  his  horse  to  a  gallop,  charging  before  all 
the  rest,  and  struck  an  Englishman  dead,  driving  his  lance  be- 
low the  breast  into  his  body,  and  stretching  him  upon  the  ground. 
Then  he  drew  his  sword,  and  struck  another,  crying  out,  *  Come 
on,  come  on  I  What  do  ye,  sirs  ?  lay  on,  lay  on  I'  At  the  sec- 
ond blow  he  struck,  the  English  pushed  forward,  and  surrounded, 
and  slew  him.  Forthwith  arose  the  noise  and  cry  of  war,  and 
on  either  side  the  people  put  themselves  in  motion. 

"  The  Normans  moved  on  to  the  assault,  and  the  English  de- 
fended themselves  well.  Some  were  striking,  others  urging  on- 
ward ;  all  were  bold,  and  cast  aside  fear.  And  now,  behold,  that 
battle  was  gathered  whereof  the  fame  is  yet  niighty. 

"  Loud  and  far  rcbOunded  the  bray  of  the  horns  ;  and  the 
shocks  of  the  lances,  the  mighty  strokes  of  maces,  and  the  quick 
clashing  of  swords.  One  wliile  the  Englishmen  rushed  on,  an- 
other while  they  fell  back  ;  one  while  the  men  from  over  sea 
charged  onward,  and  again  at  other  times  retreated.  Tlie  Nor- 
mans shouted  Dex  Aie,  the  English  people  Out.  Then  came  the 
cunning  maneuvers,  the  rude  sliocks  and  strokes  of  the  lance  and 
blows  of  the  swords,  among  the  sergeants  and  soldiers,  both  En- 
glish and  Norman. 

"  When  the  Englisli  fall  the  Normans  shout.  Each  side  taunts 
and  d"lic'K  tile  other,  yet  neither  knoAveth  what  tlie  oilier  saith  ; 
and  the  Normans  say  the  English  bark,  because  the"  \Jiiderstand 
not  their  speech. 

"  Some  wax  strong,  others  weaii  :  the  brave  exuit,  but  tlio 
lowards  tremble,  as  men  who  are  sore  dismayed.  The  Nonnaiis 
press  on  the  assault,  and  the  English  defend  their  post  well : 
they  pierce  the  hauberks,  and  cleave  the  shields,  receive  and  re- 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS.  ^UO 

turn  Bii|2;Iity  tlows.  Again,  some  press  forward,  others  yielil  , 
and  thus,  in  various  ways,  the  struggle  proceeds.  In  the  phiiii 
was  a  I'osse,  whicli  the  Normans  had  now  behind  them,  having 
passed  it  in  the  fight  without  regarding  it.  But  the  Enghsh 
charged  and  drove  tlie  Nonnans  before  them  till  they  made  theni 
la  11  back  upon  this  fosse,  overthrowing  into  it  horses  and  men 
Wsny  were  to  be  seen  falling  therein,  rolling  one  over  the  other, 
MJlh  their  faces  to  the  earth,  and  unable  to  rise.  Many  of  the 
English,  also,  whom  the  Normans  drew  down  along  with  their,, 
d.iHl  there.  At  no  time  during  the  day's  battle  dixl  so  many 
Normans  die  as  perished  in  that  fosse.  So  those  said  who  saw 
the  dead. 

"  The  varlets  who  were  set  to  guard  the  harness  began  to  aban- 
don it  as  they  saw  the  loss  of  the  Frenchmen,  when  thrown  back 
upon  the  fosse  without  power  to  recover  themselves.  Being 
greatly  alarmed  at  seeing  the  difficulty  in  restoruig  order,  they 
began  to  quit  the  harness,  and  sought  around,  not  knowing  where 
to  find  shelter.  Then  Duke  William's  brother,  Odo,  the  good 
priest,  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  galloped  up,  and  said  to  them, 
'  Stand  fast  !  stand  fast !  be  quiet  and  move  not  I  fear  nothing ; 
for,  if  God  please,  we  shall  conquer  yet.'  So  they  took  courage, 
and  rested  where  they  were  ;  and  Odo  returned  galloping  back 
to  where  the  battle  was  most  fierce,  and  was  of  great  service  on 
that  day.  He  had  put  a  hauberk  on  over  a  white  aube,  wide  in 
the  body,  with  the  sleeve  tight,  and  sat  on  a  white  horse,  so  that 
all  might  recognize  him.  In  his  hand  he  held  a  mace,  and  wher- 
ever he  saw  most  need  he  held  up  and  stationed  the  knights, 
and  often  urged  them  on  to  assault  and  strike  the  enemy. 

"  From  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  combat  began, 
till  three  o'clock  came,  the  battle  was  up  and  down,  this  way 
and  that,  and  no  one  knew  who  would  conquer  and  win  the  land. 
Both  sides  stood  so  firm  and  fought  so  well,  that  no  one  could 
guess  which  would  prevail.  The  Norman  archers  with  their 
bows  shot  thickly  upon  the  English  ;  but  they  covered  thcin- 
idves  wdth  their  shields,  so  that  the  arrows  could  not  reach  their 
bodies,  nor  do  any  mischief,  how  true  soever  was  their  aim,  or 
hcsvevcr  well  they  shot.  Then  the  Normans  determined  to  slioot 
Ihi.ir  arrows  upward  into  the  air,  so  that  they  might  fall  on  tlieii 
tntimies'  heads,  and  strike  their  faces.  The  archers  adopted  this 
fcvheme.  and  shot  up  into  the  air  toward  the  English  "   and  thf 


806  BATTl-E     OF     HASTINGS. 

arrows,  in  falling,  struck  their  heads  and  faces,  and  put  out  th« 
eyes  of  many ;  and  all  feared  to  open  their  eyes,  or  leave  their 
faces  unguarded. 

"  The  arrows  now  flew  thicker  than  rain  before  the  wind  i 
fast  sped  the  shafts  that  the  English  call  '  wibetes.'  Then  it 
was  that  an  arrow,  that  had  been  thus  shot  upward,  struck  Har- 
old, above  his  right  eye,  and  put  it  out.  In  his  agony  he  drew 
the  arrow  and  threw  it  away,  breaking  it  with  his  hands  ;  and 
ihe  piin  to  his  head  was  so  great  that  he  leaned  upon  his  shield. 
So  the  English  were  wont  to  say,  and  still  say  to  the  French, 
that  the  arrow  was  well  shot  which  was  so  sent  up  against  their 
king,  and  that  the  archer  won  them  great  glory  who  thus  put 
out  Harold's  eye. 

"  The  Normans  saw  that  the  English  defended  themselves 
well,  and  were  so  strong  in  their  position  that  they  could  do  lit- 
tle against  them.  So  they  consulted  together  privily,  and  ar- 
ranged to  draw  off',  and  pretend  to  flee,  till  the  English  should 
pursue  and  scatter  themselves  over  the  field ;  for  they  saw  that 
if  they  could  once  get  their  enemies  to  break  their  ranks,  they 
might  be  attacked  and  discomfited  much  more  easily.  As  they 
had  said,  so  they  did.  The  Normans  by  little  and  little  fled,  the 
English  following  them.  As  the  one  fell  back,  the  other  pressed 
after  ;  and  when  the  Frenchmen  retreated,  the  English  thought 
and  cried  out  that  the  men  of  France  fled,  and  would  never  re- 
turn. 

"  Thus  they  were  deceived  by  the  pretended  flight,  and  great 
misciiief  thereby  befell  them  ;  for  if  they  had  not  moved  from 
their  position,  it  is  not  likely  that  they  would  have  been  con- 
quered at  all  ;  but,  like  fools,  they  broke  their  lines  and  pur 
Bued. 

"  The  Normans  were  to  be  seen  following  up  their  stratagem, 
retreating  sloAvly  so  as  to  draw  the  English  farther  on.  As  they 
Btill  flee,  the  English  pursue  ;  they  push  out  their  lances  and 
stretch  forth  their  hatchets,  following  the  Normans  as  they  go, 
/ejoicing  in  the  success  of  their  scheme,  and  scattering  themselves 
o/er  tlie  plain.  And  the  English  meantime  jeered  and  insulted 
their  foes  M'ith  words.  '  Cowards,'  they  cried,  '  you  came  hithei 
in  an  evil  hour,  wanting  our  lands,  and  seeking  to  seize  our  prop 
crty,  fools  that  ye  were  to  come  I  Normandy  is  too  far  ofF,  iiid 
FO'i  will  not  easily  reach  it      It  is  of  little  use  to  ru  i  back  ;  un- 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS.  20T 

iess  you  can  cross  the  sea  at  a  leap,  or  can  drink  it  dry,  youi 
Boiis  and  daughters  are  lost  to  you  ' 

"  The  Normans  bore  it  all  ;  but,  in  fact,  they  knew  i.:t  whit 
the  English  said  :  their  language  seemed  like  the  baying  :  f  Jogs, 
which  they  could  not  understand.  At  length  they  stopped  and 
turned  round,  determined  to  recover  their  ranks  ;  and  the  bar- 
ons might  be  heard  crying  dex  aie  I  for  a  halt.  Then  the  Nor- 
mans resumed  their  former  position,  turning  their  laces  toward 
the  enemy  ;  and  their  men  were  to  be  seen  facing  round  aud 
rushing  onward  to  a  fresh  melee,  the  one  party  assaulting  the 
other ;  this  man  striking,  another  pressing  onward.  One  hits, 
another  misses ;  one  flies,  another  pursues ;  one  is  aiming  a 
stroke,  while  another  discharges  his  blow.  Norman  strives  with 
Englishman  again,  and  aims  his  blows  afresh.  One  flies,  anoth- 
er pursues  swiftly  :  the  combatants  are  many,  the  plain  wide, 
the  battle  and  the  melee  fierce.  On  every  hand  they  fight  hard, 
the  blows  are  heavy,  and  the  struggle  becomes  fierce. 

"  The  Normans  were  playing  their  part  well,  when  an  En- 
glish knight  came  rushing  up,  having  in  his  company  a  hundred 
men,  furnished  with  various  arms.  He  wielded  a  northern 
hatchet,  with  the  blade  a  full  foot  long,  and  was  well  armed 
after  his  manner,  being  tall,  bold,  and  of  noble  carriage.  In  the 
front  of  the  battle,  where  the  Normans  thronged  most,  he  came 
bounding  on  swifter  than  the  stag,  many  Normans  falling  before 
him  and  his  company.  He  rushed  straight  ujjon  a  Norman  whc 
was  armed  and  riding  on  a  war-horse,  and  tried  with  his  hatch- 
et of  steel  to  cleave  his  helmet  ;  but  the  blow  miscarried,  aud 
the  sharp  blade  glanced  down  before  the  saddle-bow,  driving 
through  the  horse's  neck  down  to  the  ground,  so  that  both  horse 
and  master  fell  together  to  the  earth.  I  know  not  whether  the 
Englishman  struck  another  blow ;  but  the  Normans  who  saw 
the  stroke  wei'e  astonished,  and  about  to  abandon  the  assault, 
when  Roger  de  Montgomeri  came  galloping  up,  with  his  lance 
got,  and  heeding  not  the  long-handled  ax  which  the  Englishraaii 
wielded  aloft,  struck  him  down,  and  left  him  stretched  on  the 
ground.  Then  Roger  cried  out,  '  Frenchmen,  strike  !  the  day  is 
ours  !'  And  again  a  fierce  melee  was  to  be  seen,  with  many  a 
blow  of  lance  and  sword  ;  the  English  still  defending  themetlves, 
killing  the  horses  and  cleaving  the  shields. 

•'  There  was  a  French  soldier  of  noble  mien,  who  sat  his  horse 


208  BATTLE     OF     IIASTiNUs. 

gallantly.  He  spied  two  Englishmen  who  weie  also  carrying 
themselves  boldly.  They  were  both  men  of  great  worth,  and 
had  become  companions  in  arms  and  fought  together,  the  one 
protecting  the  other.  They  bore  two  long  and  broad  bills,  and 
did  great  mischief  to  the  Normans,  killing  both  hordes  and  men. 
The  French  soldier  looked  at  them  and  their  bills,  and  was  sore 
alarmed,  for  he  was  afraid  of  losing  his  good  horse,  the  best  that 
he  had,  and  would  willingly  have  turned  to  some  other  quarter, 
if  it  would  not  have  looked  like  cowardice.  He  soon,  however, 
recovered  his  courage,  and,  spurring  his  horse,  gave  him  the  bri- 
dle, and  galloped  swiftly  forward.  Fearing  the  two  bills,  he 
raised  his  shield,  and  struck  one  of  the  Englishmen  with  his  lance 
on  the  breast,  so  that  the  iron  passed  out  at  his  back.  At  the 
moment  that  he  fell,  the  lance  broke,  and  the  Frenchman  seized 
the  mace  that  hung  at  his  right  side,  and  struck  the  other  En- 
glishman a  blow  that  completely  fractured  his  skull. 

"  On  the  other  side  was  an  Englishman  who  much  annoyed 
the  French,  continually  assaulting  them  -with  a  keen-edged  hatch- 
et. He  had  a  helmet  made  of  wood,  which  he  had  fastened  down 
to  his  coat,  and  laced  round  his  neck,  so  that  no  blows  could  reach 
his  head.  The  ravage  he  was  making  was  seen  by  a  gallant 
Norman  knight,  who  rode  a  horse  that  neither  fire  nor  water 
could  stop  in  its  career,  when  its  master  urged  it  on.  The  knight 
spurred,  and  his  horse  carried  him  on  well  till  he  charged  the 
Englishman,  striking  him  over  the  helmet,  so  that  it  fell  down 
over  his  eyes  ;  and  as  he  stretched  out  his  hand  to  raise  it  and 
uncover  his  face,  the  Norman  cut  ofi^  his  right  hand,  so  that  liis 
hatchet  fell  to  the  grovnid.  Another  Norman  sprang  forward  and 
eagerly  seized  the  prize  Mith  both  his  hands,  but  he  kept  it  little 
space,  and  paid  dearly  for  it,  for  as  he  stooped  to  pick  up  the 
hatcliet,  an  Englishman  with  his  long-handled  ax  struck  him 
over  the  back,  breaking  all  liis  bones,  so  that  his  entrails  and 
lungs  gushed  forth.  The  knight  of  the  good  horse  meantime  re 
turned  without  injury  ;  but  on  liis  way  he  met  another  English 
man,  and  bore  him  down  under  his  horse,  wounding  hii  griev- 
ouslj   and  Irainpling  him  altogether  under  foot. 

".And  now  might  be  heard  the  loud  clang  and  cry  of  battle, 
and  the  cla.'^hing  oi"  lances  Th,  English  stood  firm  in  their  bar- 
ricades, and  shivered  the  lances,  beating  them  into  pieces  with 
their  l)ill?   and    maces.      The  Normans  d'-^'w  their  "words   and 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS.  20^ 

hewed  tlovvii  the  barricadas,  and  the  English,  in  f»reat  troi.ble, 
iell  back  upon  their  standard,  where  were  collected  tlie  maimed 
and  wounded. 

"  There  were  many  knights  of  Chauz  who  jousted  and  made 
attacks.  The  Englisli  knew  not  how  to  joust,  or  bear  arms  on 
liorseback,  but  fought  with  hatchets  and  bills.  A  man,  when  he 
•v\ttnted  to  strike  with  one  of  their  hatchets,  was  obliged  to  hold 
it  with  both  his  hands,  and  could  not  at  the  same  time,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  both  cover  himself  and  strike  with  any  freedom. 

"  The  English  fell  back  toward  the  standard,  which  was  upon 
a  ri  ing  ground,  and  the  Normans  followed  them  across  the  val- 
ley, attacking  them  on  foot  and  horseback.  Then  Hue  de  Mor- 
temer,  with  the  Sires  D'Auviler,  D'Onebac,  and  Saint  Cler,  rode 
up  and  charged,  overthrowing  many. 

"  Robert  Fitz  Erneis  fixed  his  lance,  took  liis  shield,  and,  gal- 
loping toward  the  standard,  with  his  keen-edged  sword  struck  an 
Englishman  who  was  in  front,  killed  him,  and  then  drawing  back 
his  sword,  attacked  many  others,  and  pushed  straight  for  the 
standai-d,  trying  to  beat  it  down  ;  but  the  English  surrounded  it 
and  killed  him  with  their  bills.  He  was  found  on  the  spot,  whcD 
they  afterward  sought  for  hini,  dead,  and  lying  at  the  standard',* 
foot. 

"  Duke  William  pressed  close  upon  the  Enghsh  with  his  lance 
striving  liard  to  reach  the  standard  with  the  great  troop  he  lea 
and  seeking  earnestly  for  Harold,  on  whose  account  the  whol 
war  was.  The  Normans  follow  their  lord,  and  press  around  him 
they  ply  their  blows  u})on  the  English  ;  and  these  defend  then' 
selves  stoutly,  striving  liard  with  their  enemies,  returning  blo'>? 
ibr  blow. 

"  One  of  them  was  a  man  of  great  strength,  a  wrestler,  win. 
did  great  mischief  to  the  Normans  with  his  hatchet ;  all  feared 
him,  for  he  struck  down  a  great  many  Normans.  The  duke  spur- 
red on  his  horse,  and  aimed  a  blow  at  him,  but  he  stooped,  anil 
?o  escaped  the  stroke  ;  then  jumping  on  one  side,  he  hfted  hi? 
Ratchet  aloft,  and  as  the  duke  bent  to  avoid  the  blow,  the  En 
eJishman  boldly  struck  him  on  the  head,  and  beat  in  his  helmet 
ihough  without  doing  much  injury.  He  was  very  near  lalliue' 
however  ;  but,  bearing  on  his  stirrups,  he  recovered  himself  im 
mediately  ;  and  when  he  thought  to  have  revenged  liimseil  upui 
the  churl  by  killing  him,  he  had  escaped,  dreading  th*'  d>ikeS 


^iO  BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS. 

blow.  He  ran  back  in  among  tlie  English,  but  he  was  not  saic 
even  Iherc  ;  for  the  Normans,  seeing  him,  pursued  and  caught 
him,  and  having  pierced  him  through  and  through  with  thoii 
lances,  left  him  daad  on  the  ground. 

"  Where  the  throng  of  the  battle  was  greatest,  the  mer.  of 
Kent  and  Essex  fought  wondrously  well,  and  made  the  Norman* 
again  retreat,  but  without  doing  them  much  injury.  And  when 
the  duke  saw  his  men  fall  back,  and  the  English  triumplring 
over  them,  his  spirit  rose  high,  and  he  seized  his  shield  and  his 
lance,  which  a  vassal  handed  to  him,  and  took  his  post  by  his 
standard. 

"  Then  those  who  kept  close  guard  by  him,  and  rode  where 
he  rode,  being  about  a  thousand  armed  men,  came  and  rushed 
with  closed  ranks  upon  the  English ;  and  with  the  weight  of 
their  good  horses,  and  the  blows  the  knights  gave,  broke  the  press 
of  the  enemy,  and  scattered  the  crowd  before  them,  the  good  duke 
leading  them  on  in  front.  Many  pursued  and  many  fled  ;  many 
were  the  Englishmen  who  fell  around,  and  were  trampled  under 
the  horses,  crawling  upon  the  earth,  and  not  able  to  rise.  Many 
of  the  richest  and  noblest  men  fell  in  the  rout,  but  still  the  En 
glish  rallied  in  places,  smote  down  those  whom  they  reached, 
and  maintained  the  combat  the  best  they  could,  beating  down 
the  men  and  killing  the  horses.  One  Englishman  watched  the 
duke,  and  plotted  to  kill  him  ;  he  would  have  struck  him  with 
his  lance,  but  he  could  not,  for  the  duke  struck  him  first,  and 
felled  him  to  the  earth. 

"  Loud  was  now  the  clamor,  and  great  the  slaughter ;  many 
a  soul  then  quitted  the  body  it  inhabited.  The  living  marched 
over  the  heaps  of  dead,  and  each  side  was  weary  of  striking.  He 
charged  on  v/ho  could,  and  he  who  could  no  longer  strike  still 
pushed  forward.  The  strong  struggled  with  the  strong  ;  some 
failed,  others  triumphed  ;  the  cowards  fell  back,  the  brave  pressed 
on  ;  and  sad  was  his  fate  who  fell  in  the  midst,  for  he  had  little 
chance  of  rising  again ;  and  many  in  truth  fell  who  never  rore 
at  all,  being  crushed  under  the  throng. 

"  And  now  the  Normans  had  pressed  on  so  far,  that  at  last 
they  had  reached  the  standard.  There  Harold  had  remained, 
defending  himself  to  the  utmost ;  but  he  was  sorely  wounded  in 
his  eye  by  the  arrow,  and  suftered  grievous  pain  fror.i  the  blow, 
A^n  arriei  man  came  in  the  throng  of  the  battle,  and  strurk  him 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS  iil  1 

on  the  veutaille  of  his  hehiiet,  and  boat  hiin  to  the  ground  ;  and 
as  he  sought  to  recover  himself",  a  Ivuight  beat  hiin  down  agaiu, 
striking  him  on  the  thick  oi'  his  thigh,  down  to  the  bone. 

"Gurth  saw  the  Enghsh  falling  around,  and  that  there  was 
no  remed}'.  He  saw  his  race  hastening  to  ruin,  and  despaired 
of  any  aid  ;  he  would  have  fled,  but  could  not,  for  the  throng 
continually  increased.  And  the  duke  pushed  on  till  he  reached 
him,  and  struck  him  with  great  force.  Whether  he  died  of  ;hat 
blow  I  know  not,  but  it  was  said  that  he  fell  under  it,  and  rose 
no  more. 

"  The  standard  was  beaten  down,  the  golden  standard  wag 
taken,  and  Harold  and  the  best  of  his  friends  were  slain ;  but 
there  was  so  much  eagerness,  and  throng  of  so  many  around, 
seeking  to  kill  him,  that  I  know  not  who  it  was  that  slew  him. 

"  The  English  were  in  great  trouble  at  having  lost  their  king, 
and  at  the  duke's  having  conquered  and  beat  down  the  standard  ; 
but  they  still  fought  on,  and  defended  themselves  long,  and  in 
fact  till  the  day  drew  to  a  close.  Then  it  clearly  appeared  to 
all  that  the  standard  was  lost,  and  the  news  had  spread  through- 
out the  army  that  Harold,  for  certain,  was  dead  ;  and  all  saw 
that  there  was  no  longer  any  hope,  so  they  left  the  field,  and 
those  fled  who  could. 

"  William  fought  well ;  many  an  assault  did  he  lead,  many  a 
blow  did  he  give,  and  many  receive,  and  many  fell  dead  under 
his  hand.  Two  horses  were  killed  under  him,  and  he  took  a 
third  when  necessary,  so  that  he  fell  not  to  the  ground,  and  lost 
not  a  drop  of  blood.  But  w^hatever  any  one  did,  and  whoever 
lived  or  died,  this  is  certain,  that  William  conquered,  and  that 
many  of  the  English  fled  from  the  field,  and  many  died  on  the 
spot.  Then  he  returned  thanks  to  God,  and  in  his  pride  ordered 
his  standard  to  be  brought  and  set  up  on  high,  where  the  English 
standard  had  stood  ;  and  that  was  the  signal  of  his  having  con- 
quered, and  beaten  down  the  standard.  And  he  ordered  his  tent 
to  be  raised  on  the  spot  among  the  dead,  and  had  his  meat  brouglit 
thither,  and  his  supper  prepared  there. 

*'  Then  he  took  ofl'  his  armor ;  and  the  barons  and  kraghts 
pages  and  squires  came,  when  he  had  unstrung  his  shield  ;  and 
they  took  the  helmet  from  his  head,  and  the  hauberk  from  his 
back,  and  saw  the  heavy  blows  upon  his  shield,  and  how  his 
holmet  was  dinted  in.     And   all  greatly  wondered,  and  said 


212  CATTLE     OF     IIAsiTINCiS. 

'  Sucli  a  baron  (ber)  never  bestrode  war-horse,  nor  dealt  sutjl 
blows,  nor  did  such  feats  of  arms  ;  neither  has  there  been  on 
earth  such  a  knight  since  Rollant  and  OHver.' 

"  Thus  they  lauded  and  *^xtolled  him  greatlyi  and  rejoiced  in 
what  they  saw,  but  grieving  also  for  their  friends  who  were  slain 
in  the  battle.  And  the  duke  stood  meanwhile  among  them,  of 
noble  stature  and  mien,  and  rendered  thanks  to  the  King  of  glo- 
ry, through  whom  he  had  the  victory ;  and  thanked  the  knights 
around  him,  mourning  also  frequently  for  the  dead.  And  he  ate 
and  drank  among  the  dead,  and  made  his  bed  that  night  upon 
the  field. 

"  The  morrov  was  Sunday  ;  and  those  who  had  slept  upon 
the  field  of  battle,  keeping  watch  around,  and  suffering  great  fa- 
tigue, bestirred  themselves  at  break  of  day,  and  sought  out  and 
buried  such  of  the  bodies  of  their  dead  friends  as  they  might  find. 
The  noble  ladies  of  the  land  also  came,  some  to  seek  their  hus 
bands,  and  others  their  fathers,  sons,  or  brothers.  They  bore  the 
bodies  to  their  villages,  and  interred  them  at  the  churches  ;  and 
the  clerks  and  priests  of  the  country  were  ready,  and  at  the  re- 
quest of  their  friends,  took  the  bodies  that  were  found,  and  pre 
pared  graves  and  lay  them  therein. 

"  King  Harold  was  carried  and  buried  at  Varham  ;  but  I  know 
not  who  it  was  that  bore  him  thither,  neither  do  I  know  who 
buried  him.  Many  remained  on  the  field,  and  many  had  fled  in 
the  night." 

Sucli  is  a  Norman  account  of  the  battle  of  Hastings,*^  which 
does  full  justice  to  the  valor  of  the  Saxons  as  well  as  to  the  skill 
and  bravery  of  the  victors.  It  is  indeed  evident  that  the  loss  of 
the  battle  by  the  English  was  owing  to  the  wound  which  Har- 
old received  in  tlie  afternoon,  and  which  must  have  incapacita- 
ted him  from  effective  eonmiand.  When  we  remember  that  ho 
Lad  himself  just  won  the  battle  of  Stamford  Bridge  over  Harald 
Hardrada  by  the  maneuver  of  a  feigned  flight,  it  is  impossible  to 
suppose  that  he  could  be  deceived  by  the  same  stratagem  ou  the 

*  Ii.  the  preceding  pages  I  have  woven  together  tlie  '  purpurf  os  paniioa' 
'.'f'lie  old  clii()nich3r.  In  so  doing,  I  iiave  largely  availed  niyeelf  of  Mr. 
Edgar  Taylor's  version  of  that  part  of  the  "  Roman  de  Ron"  which  de- 
bcrihcs  tho  conquest.  By  giving  engravings  from  tiie  Bayeux  Tapestry 
and  by  his  e,\cellent  notes,  M'-.  Tavln  has  added  much  to  the  value  and 
\nterest  of  his  volume 


BATTLE     OF     HASTINGS.  213 

pail  of  the  JAormaus  at  Hastings.  But  liis  men,  \vhc;n  deprived 
of  iiis  control,  would  very  naturally  be  led  by  their  iacousiderate 
ardor  into  the  pursuit  that  proved  so  fatal  to  them.  All  the  nar- 
ratives of  the  battle,  however  much  they  vary  as  to  the  precise 
time  and  manner  of  Harold's  fall,  eulogize  the  generalship  and 
the  personal  prowess  which  he  displayed,  until  the  fatal  arrow 
etruck  him.  The  skill  with  which  he  had  posted  his  army  was 
{)roved  both  by  the  slaughter  which  it  cost  the  Normans  to  force 
the  position,  and  also  by  the  desperate  rally  which  some  of  the 
Saxons  made  after  the  battle  in  the  forest  in  the  rear,  in  which 
they  cut  ofl'  a  large  number  of  the  pursuing  Normans.  This  cir- 
cumstance is  particularly  mentioned  by  William  of  Poictiers,  the 
Conquerors  own  chaplain.  Indeed,  if  Harold,  or  either  of  his 
brothers,  had  survived,  the  remains  of  the  English  army  might 
have  formed  again  in  the  wood,  and  could  at  least  have  efl'ected 
an  orderly  retreat,  and  prolonged  the  war.  But  both  Gurth, 
and  Leofwine,  and  all  the  bravest  Thanes  of  Southern  England 
lay  dead  on  Senlac,  around  their  fallen  king  and  the  fallen  stand- 
ard of  their  country.  The  exact  number  that  perished  on  the 
Saxon  side  is  unknovi'n  ;  but  we  read  that  on  the  side  of  the  vic- 
tors, out  of  sixty  thousand  men  who  had  been  engaged,  no  less 
than  a  fourth  perished.  So  well  had  the  English  billmen  "  ply- 
ed  the  ghastly  blow,"  and  so  sternly  had  the  Saxon  battle-ax 
cloven  Norman  casque  and  mail.*  The  old  historian  Daniel 
justly  as  well  as  forcibly  remarks,!  "  Thus  was  tried,  by  the 
great  assize  of  God's  judgment  in  battle,  the  right  of  power  be- 
tween the  English  and  Norman  nations  ;  a  battle  the  most  mem- 
orable of  all  others  ;  and,  however  miserably  lost,  yet  most  nobly 
fought  on  the  part  of  England." 

Many  a  pathetic  legend  was  told  in  after  years  respecting  the 
discovery  and  the  burial  of  the  corpse  of  our  last  Saxon  king. 
The  main  circumstances,  though  they  seem  to  vary,  are  perhaps 
reconcilable. t  Two  of  the  monks  of  Waltham  Abbey,  which  Har- 
old had  founded  a  little  time  before  his  election  to  the  throne, 
had  accompanied  him  to  the  battle.  On  the  morning  after  the 
&]aMgU'?r,  they  begged  and  gained  permission  of  the  Conqueror 

*  The  vTonqueror's  Chaplain  calls  the  Saxon  hattle-axes  "saevissimae 
secures."  +  .As  cited  in  the  "  Pictorial  History." 

t  See  them  collected  in  Lingard,  i.,  452,  et  seq.  Thierry,  i.,  299  ;  SI  ar 
on  Turner  i.,  82  ;  and  Histoire  dc  Norm-^ndie,  par  Liegnet,  p  242. 


214  SViNOFSIS     OF     EVENTS     AFTEK     THE 

to  searcn  for  the  bodj-  of  their  benefactor.  The  Normaii  soldiery 
and  camp-followers  had  stripped  and  gashed  the  slain,  aiid  the 
two  monks  vainly  strove  to  recognize  from  among  the  mutilated 
and  gory  heaps  around  them  the  features  of  their  former  king 
They  sent  for  Harold's  mistress,  Edith,  surnamed  "  the  Fair," 
and  "  the  swan-necked,"  to  aid  them.  The  eye  of  love  proved 
keener  than  the  eye  of  gratitude,  and  the  Saxon  lady  even  in  that 
Aceldama  knew  her  Harold. 

The  king's  mother  now  sought  the  victorious  Norman,  and 
begged  the  dead  body  of  her  son.  But  William  at  first  answer- 
ed in  his  wrath  and  the  hardness  of  his  heart,  that  a  man  who 
bad  been  false  to  his  word  and  his  religion  should  have  no  other 
sepulchre  than  the  sand  of  the  shore.  He  added,  with  a  sneer, 
"  Harold  mounted  guard  on  the  coast  while  he  was  alive,  he  may 
continue  his  guard  now  he  is  dead."  The  taunt  was  an  unin- 
tentional euolgy  ;  and  a  grave  washed  by  the  spray  of  the  Sus 
sex  waves  would  have  been  the  noblest  burial-place  for  the  mar- 
tyr of  Saxon  freedom.  But  Harold's  mother  was  urgent  in  hei 
lamentations  and  her  prayers  ;  the  Conqueror  relented  :  like 
Achilles,  he  gave  up  the  dead  body  of  his  fallen  foe  to  a  parent's 
supplications,  and  the  remains  of  King  Harold  were  deposited 
with  regal  honors  in  Waltham  Abbey. 

On  Christmas  day  in  the  same  year  William  the  Conquered 
was  crowned  at  London  King  of  England. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  A.D 
1066,  AND  Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans,  A.D.  1429. 

A.D.  1066-1087.  Reign  of  William  the  Conqueror.  Frequent 
risings  of  the  English  against  him,  which  are  quelled  with  mer- 
ciless rigor. 

1096.   The  first  Crusade. 

1112.  Commencement  of  the  disputes  about  investitures  be- 
tween the  emperors  and  the  popes. 

1 140.  Foundation  of  the  city  of  Lubec,  whence  originated  the 
Hanseatic  League.  Commencement  of  the  feuds  in  Italy  be- 
tween the  Guelfs  and  the  Ghibellines. 

1146    The  second  Crusade. 

1 164.   Henry  \I  becomep  King  of  England.    "Tnder  him  Thorn 


BATTLr,Ct"UASriNG8.  2i0 

as  a  Becket  is  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  :  tlie  firat  instancv 
of  any  man  of  the  Saxon  race  being  raised  to  high  ofTice  ia 
Church  or  State  since  the  Conquest. 

1170.  Strongbow,  earl  of  Pembroke,  lands  with  an  English 
army  in  Ireland. 

1189.  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  becomes  King  of  England.  He 
and  King  Philip  Augustus  of  France  join  in  the  third  Crusade. 

1199-1204.  On  the  death  of  King  Richard,  his  brother  John 
claims  and  makes  himself  master  of  England  and  Normandy,  and 
the  other  large  continental  possessions  of  the  early  Plantagenet 
princes.  Philip  Augustus  asserts  the  cause  of  Prince  Arthur, 
John's  nephew,  against  him.  Arthur  is  murdered,  but  the 
French  king  continues  the  war  against  John,  and  conquers  from 
hmi  Normandy.  Brittany,  Anjou,  Maine,  Touraine,  and  Poictiers. 

1215.  The  barons,  the  freeholders,  the  citizens,  and  the  yeo- 
men of  England  rise  against  the  tyranny  of  John  and  his  foreign 
favorites.  They  compel  him  to  sign  Magna  Charta.  This  is  the 
coiiunencement  of  our  nationality  :  for  our  history  from  this  time 
Ibrth  is  the  history  of  a  national  life,  then  complete  and  still  in  be- 
ing. All  English  history  before  this  period  is  a  mere  history  oi 
elements,  of  their  collisions,  and  of  the  processes  of  their  fusion 
For  upward  of  a  century  after  the  Conquest,  Anglo-Norman  and 
Aikglo-Saxon  had  kept  aloof  from  each  other  :  the  one  in  haughty 
scorn,  the  other  in  sullen  abhorrence.  They  were  two  peoples, 
though  living  in  the  same  land.  It  is  not  until  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  period  of  the  reigns  of  John  and  his  son  and  grand- 
son, that  we  can  perceive  the  existence  of  any  feeling  of  com- 
mon nationality  among  them.  But  in  studying  the  history  of 
these  reigns,  we  read  of  the  old  dissensions  no  longer.  The  Saxon 
no  more  appears  in  civil  war  against  the  Norman,  the  Norman 
no  longer  scorns  the  language  of  the  Saxon,  or  refuses  to  bear  to- 
gether with  him  the  name  of  Englishman.  No  part  of  the  com- 
munity think  themselves  foreigners  to  another  part.  They  feci 
that  they  are  all  one  people,  and  they  have  learned  to  unite  their 
eflbrts  for  the  common  purpose  of  protecting  the  rights  and  pro- 
moting the  welfare  of  all.  The  fortunate  loss  of  the  Duchy  of 
Normandy  in  John's  reign  greatly  promoted  these  new  feelings. 
Thenceforth  our  barons'  only  homes  were  in  England.  One  lar.- 
Ifuage  had,  m  tlie  '"eign  of  Henry  III.,  become  the  language  cf 
the  land,  and  that,  also,  had  then  assumed  the  form  in  which  we 


tf'16  SiTNOi'SIS     OF     EVENTS     AFTER     THK 

Btill  possess  it.  One  law,  in  the  eye  of  -which  all  freemen  »i« 
equal  without  distinction  of  race,  was  modeled,  and  steadily  en- 
forced, and  still  continues  to  fomi  the  ground-work  of  our  judicial 
system.* 

1273.  Rodolph  of  Hapsburg  chosen  Emperor  of  Gennany. 

1283.   Edward  I.  conquers  Wales. 

1346.  Edward  III.  invades  France,  and  gains  tho  battle  ni 
Cresay. 

1356.  Battle  of  Poictiers. 

1360.  Treaty  of  Bretigny  between  England  and  France.  By 
it  Edward  III.  renounces  his  pretensions  to  the  French  crown. 
The  treaty  is  ill  kept,  and  indecisive  hostilities  continue  between 
the  forces  of  the  two  countries. 

1414.  Henry  V.  of  England  claims  the  crown  of  France,  and 
resolves  to  invade  and  conquer  that  kingdom.  At  this  time 
France  was  in  the  most  deplorable  state  of  weakness  and  suffer- 
mg,  from  the  factions  that  raged  among  her  nobility,  and  from 
the  cruel  oppressions  which  the  rival  nobles  practiced  on  the  mass 
of  the  community.  "  The  people  were  exhausted  by  taxes,  civil 
wars,  and  military  executions  ;  and  they  had  fallen  into  that  worst 
of  all  states  of  mind,  when  the  independence  of  one's  country  is 
thought  no  longer  a  paramount  and  sacred  object.  '  What  can 
the  English  do  to  us  worse  than  the  thing  we  suffer  at  the  hands 
of  our  own  princes  ?'  was  a  common  exclamation  among  the  poor 
people  of  France. "t 

1415.  Henry  invades  France,  takes  Harfleur,  and  wins  the 
^eat  battle  of  Agincourt. 

1417-1419.  Henry  conquers  Normandy.  The  French  Dau- 
phin assassinates  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  most  powerful  of  the 
French  nobles,  at  Montereau.  The  successor  of  the  murdered 
d-ake  becomes  the  active  ally  of  the  English 

1420.  The  treaty  of  Troyes  is  concluded  between  Henry  V.  of 
England  and  Charles  VI.  of  France,  and  Philip,  duke  of  Burgun- 
dy. By  this  treaty  it  Avas  stipulated  that  Hcnr}'  should  marrv 
tho  Princess  Catharine  of  France  ;  that  King  Charles,  during  iiig 
lif.lime,  should  keep  the  title  and  dignily  of  King  of  France,  liul 
that  Henry  should  succeed  him,  and  should  at  once  be  intrusted 
with  the  adriinistration  of  the  government,  and  that  the  French 

♦  "  Crcasy's  Te.xt-book"  of  the  Constitution,"  p.  4. 
i  "  Pictorial  Hist,  of  England,"  vol   i.,  p.  sa 


BATTLE     OF     H  A  5  T  1  N  G  it.  217 

crown  should  d.scend  to  Henry's  heirs;  that  France  and  En- 
gland should  forever  be  united  under  one  king,  but  shjuld  still 
retain  ilieir  several  usages,  customs,  and  privileges  ;  that  all  the 
princes,  peers,  vassals,  and  communities  of  France  should  sweat 
allegiance  to  Henry  as  their  future  king,  and  should  pay  him 
present  obedience  as  regent.  That  Henry  should  unite  his  arras 
to  those  of  King  Charles  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  in  order  to 
subdue  the  adherents  of  Charles,  the  pretended  dauphin  ;  and 
tliat  these  three  princes  should  make  no  peace  or  truce  with  the 
dauphin  but  by  the  common  consent  of  all  three. 

1421.  Henry  V.  gains  several  victories  over  the  French,  who 
refuse  to  acknowledge  the  treaty  of  Troyes.  His  son,  afterward 
Henry  VI.,  is  bom. 

1422.  Henry  V.  and  Charles  VI.  of  France  die.  Henry  VI. 
is  proclaimed  at  Paris  King  of  England  and  France.  The  fol 
lowers  of  the  French  dauphin  proclaim  him  Charles  VII.,  king 
of  France.  The  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  English  regent  in  France, 
defeats  the  army  of  the  dauphin  at  Crevant. 

1424.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  gains  the  great  victory  of  Vemeui) 
over  the  French  partisans  of  the  dauphin  and  their  Scotch  aax- 
liaries 

1428.  The  Enghsh  begn  the  siege  of  Orleans. 

K 


218  JOAN     OF     ARC    S     VICTORY 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OtM  OF  AEC'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  ENGLISH  AT  ORLEANS,  AD.  1429 

?he  eyes  of  all  Europe  were  turned  toward  this  scene,  where  it  waa 
reasonably  supposed  the  French  were  to  make  their  last  stand  for  main* 
taining  the  independence  of  their  monarchy  and  the  rights  of  their  sov- 
ereign.— Hume. 

When,  after  their  victory  at  Salamis,  the  generals  of  the  va- 
rious Greek  states  voted  the  prizes  for  distinguished  individual 
merit,  each  assigned  the  first  place  of  excellence  to  himself,  but 
they  all  concurred  in  giving  their  second  votes  to  Themistocles.* 
This  w^as  looked  on  as  a  decisive  proof  that  Themistocles  ought 
to  be  ranked  first  of  all.  If  we  vi'ere  to  endeavor,  by  a  similar 
test,  to  ascertain  w^hich  European  nation  had  contributed  the 
most  to  the  progress  of  European  civilization,  we  should  find 
Italy,  Germany,  England,  and  Spain  each  claiming  the  first  de- 
gree, but  each  also  naming  France  as  clearly  next  in  merit.  It 
jg  impossible  to  deny  her  paramount  importance  in  history.  Be- 
sides the  formidable  part  that  she  has  for  nearly  three  centuries 
played,  as  the  Bellona  of  the  European  commonwealth  of  states, 
her  influence  during  all  this  period  over  the  arts,  the  literature, 
the  manners,  and  the  feelings  of  mankind,  has  been  such  as  to 
make  the  crisis  of  her  earlier  fortunes  a  point  of  world-wide  in- 
terest ;  and  it  may  be  asserted,  without  exaggeration,  that  the 
future  career  of  every  nation  was  involved  in  the  result  of  the 
struggle  by  which  the  unconscious  heroine  of  France,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fifteenth  century,  rescued  her  country  from  becom- 
ing a  second  Ireland  under  the  yoke  of  the  triumphant  English. 

Seldom  has  the  extinction  of  a  nation's  independence  appeared 
more  inevitable  than  was  the  case  in  France  when  the  English 
invaders  com])letcd  their  lines  round  Orleans,  four  hundred  and 
tw».M)t,y-two  years  ago.  A  scries  of  dreadful  defeats  had  tiiinned 
thd  eldvalry  of  France,  and  daunted  the  spirits  of  her  soldiers. 
A  foreign  king  had  been  proclaimed  in  her  capital;  and  foreign 
irrnvas  of  the  bravest  veterans,  and  led  by  the  ablest  captains  then 
♦  Plutarch. Vit.  Them.  17. 


AT     ORLEANS.  219 

known  in  the  world,  occupied  the  fairest  portions  of  her  territory. 
Worse  to  her,  even,  than  the  fierceness  and  the  strength  of  hel 
foes,  were  the  factions,  the  vices,  and  the  crimes  of  her  own  chil- 
dren. Her  native  prince  was  a  dissolute  trifler,  stained  with  the 
assassination  ot  the  most  powerful  noble  of  the  land,  whose  son, 
in  revenge,  had  leagued  himself  with  the  enemy.  Many  more 
of  her  nobility,  many  of  her  prelates,  her  magistrates,  and  rulers, 
had  sworn  fealty  to  the  English  king.  The  condition  of  the 
peasantry  amid  the  general  prevalence  of  anarchy  and  brigand- 
age, which  were  added  to  the  customary  devastations  of  contend- 
ing armies,  was  wirctched  beyond  the  power  of  language  to  de- 
scribe. The  sense  of  terror  and  wretchedness  seemed  to  have 
extended  itself  even  to  the  brute  creation. 

"  In  sooth,  tl:e  estate  of  France  was  then  most  miserable 
There  appeared  nothing  but  a  horrible  face,  confusion,  poverty, 
desolation,  eolitarinesse,  and  feare.  The  lean  and  bare  laborers 
in  the  country  did  terrific  even  theeves  themselves,  who  had  noth- 
ing left  them  to  spoilc  but  the  carkasses  of  these  poore  miserable 
creatures,  wandering  up  and  down  like  ghostes  draA\ne  out  of 
their  graves.  The  least  farmes  and  hamlets  were  fortified  by 
these  robbeis,  English,  Bourguegnons,  and  French,  every  one  striv 
ing  to  do  his  M'orst :  all  men-of-war  were  well  agreed  to  spoilc 
the  countryman  and  merchant.  Even  the  cattcll,  accustomed  to 
the  larume  belt,  the  signc  of  the  enemy' &  approach,  would  run 
home  of  themselves  ivithout  any  guide  by  this  accustomed  mis- 
ery."* 

In  the  autumn  of  1428,  the  English,  who  were  alieady  mas 
ters  of  all  France  no.'th  of  the  Loire,  prepared  their  forces  for  the 
conquest  of  the  southern  provinces,  which  yet  adhered  to  the 
cause  of  the  dauphin.  The  city  of  Orleans,  on  the  banks  of  that 
river,  was  looked  upon  as  the  last  stronghold  of  the  French  na- 
tional party.  If  the  English  could  once  obtain  possession  of  it 
their  victorious  progress  through  the  residue  of  the  kingdon 
seemed  free  from  any  serious  obstacle.  Accordingly,  the  Earl 
of  Salisbury,  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  experienced  of  the  En- 
glish generals,  who  had  been  trained  under  Henry  V.,  maichcc. 
to  the  attack  of  the  all-important  city  ;  and,  after  reducing  sev 
eral  places  of  inferior  consequence  in  the  neighborhood,  appeareo 
aith  his  army  before  its  walls  on  the  12th  of  October,  1426 
*  Dr  Serres,  quoted  in  the  Notes  to  Southey's  "Joan  of  Arc  " 


25JO  JOAN    OF   arc's   victcrt 

The  city  of  Orleans  itself  M'as  on  the  north  si  le  oi  the  Loire, 
but  its  suburbs  extended  far  on  the  southern  side,  and  a  strong 
bridge  connected  them  with  the  town.  A  fortification,  which  iu 
modern  military  phrase  would  be  termed  a  tete-du-pont,  defend- 
ed the  bridge  head  on  the  southern  side,  and  two  towers,  called 
the  Tourelles,  were  built  on  the  bridge  itself,  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  tete-du-pont.  Indeed,  the  solid  masonry  of  the  bridge 
terminated  at  the  Tourelles ;  and  the  communication  thence  with 
the  tete-du-pont  and  the  southern  shore  was  by  means  of  a  draw- 
bridge. The  Tourelles  and  the  tete-du-pont  formed  together  a 
strong  fortified  post,  capable  of  containing  a  garrison  of  consider 
able  strength  ;  and  so  long  as  this  was  in  possession  of  the  Or- 
leannais,  they  could  communicate  freely  with  the  southern  prov- 
inces, the  inhabitants  of  which,  like  the  Orleannais  themselves, 
supported  the  cause  of  their  dauphin  against  the  foreigners.  Lord 
Salisbury  rightly  judged  the  capture  of  the  Tourelles  to  be  the 
most  material  step  toward  the  reduction  of  the  city  itself.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  directed  his  principal  operations  against  this  post, 
and  after  some  severe  repulses,  he  carried  the  Tourelles  by  storm 
on  the  23d  of  October.  The  French,  however,  broke  down  the 
arches  of  the  bridge  that  were  nearest  to  the  north  bank,  and 
thus  rendered  d  direct  assault  from  the  Tourelles  upon  the  city 
impossible.  But  the  possession  of  this  post  enabled  the  English 
to  distress  the  town  greatly  by  a  battery  of  cannon  which  they 
planted  there,  and  which  commanded  some  of  the  principal  streetai. 

It  has  been  observed  by  Hume  that  this  is  the  first  siege  m 
which  any  important  use  appears  to  have  been  made  of  artil- 
lery. And  even  at  Orleans  both  besiegers  and  besieged  seem  to 
have  employed  their  cannons  merely  as  instruments  of  destruc- 
•.ion  against  their  enemy's  me?i,  and  not  to  have  trusted  to  them 
as  engines  of  demolition  against  their  enemy's  walls  and  works. 
The  efficacy  of  cannon  in  breaching  solid  masonry  was  taught 
Europe  by  the  Turks  a  few  years  afterward,  at  the  memorable 
eiegc  of  Constantinople.*  In  our  French  wars,  as  in  the  wars 
nf  the  classic  nations,  famine  was  looked  on  as  the  surest  weapon 
to  compel  the  submission  of  a  •\vell-wallcd  town  ;  and  the  gieat 
object  of  the  besiegers  was  to  eflect  a  complete  circumvallation. 
The  great  ambit  of  the  walls  of  Orleans,  antl-the  facilities  which 

♦  The  occasional  employment  of  artillery  against  slight  defenses,  as  at 
Jargnau  in  1429,  is  n  •  real  exception 


AT     O  R  L  K  A  X  3. 


the  river  gave  for  obtaining  succors  and  supplies,  rendercQ  the 
capture  ol' the  town  by  this  process  a  matter  oi"  great  difhcully. 
Nevertheless,  Lord  Sahsbury,  and  Lord  Suilbliv,  who  succeeded 
him  in  command  of  the  English  after  his  death  by  a  cannon  ball, 
carried  on  the  necessary  works  with  great  skill  and  resolution. 
{Six  strongly-fortified  posts,  called  bastilles,  were  formed  at  cer- 
tain intervals  round  the  town,  and  the  purpose  of  the  English 
engineers  was  to  draw  strong  lines  between  them.  During  the 
winter,  little  progress  was  made  with  the  intrenchments,  but 
when  the  spring  of  1429  came,  the  English  resumed  their  work- 
■with  activity ;  the  communications  between  the  city  and  the 
country  became  more  difficult,  and  the  approach  of  want  began 
already  to  be  felt  in  Orleans. 

The  besieging  force  also  fared  hardly  for  stores  and  provisions, 
until  relieved  by  the  effects  of  a  brilliant  victory  which  Sir  John 
Fastolfe,  one  of  the  best  English  generals,  gained  at  Rouvrai, 
near  Orleans,  a  few  days  after  Ash  Wednesday,  1429.  With 
only  sixteen  hundred  fighting  men.  Sir  John  completely  defeated 
an  army  of  French  and  Scots,  four  thousand  strong,  which  had 
been  collected  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  Orleannais  and  har- 
assing the  besiegers.  After  this  encounter,  which  seemed  deci- 
sively to  confirm  the  superiority  of  the  English  in  battle  ovei 
their  adversaries,  Fastolfe  escorted  large  supplies  of  stores  and 
food  to  Suflblk's  camp,  and  the  spirits  of  the  English  rose  to  the 
highest  pitch  at  the  prospect  of  the  speedy  capture  of  the  city  be 
fore  them,  and  the  consequent  subjection  of  all  France  beneath 
their  arms. 

The  Orleannais  now,  in  their  distress,  offered  to  surrender  the 
city  into  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who,  though  the 
ally  of  the  English,  was  yet  one  of  their  native  princes.  The 
Regent  Bedford  refused  these  terms,  and  the  speedy  submissioa 
of  the  city  to  the  English  seemed  inevitable.  The  Dauphin 
Charles,  who  was  now  at  Chinon  with  his  remnant  of  a  court, 
despaired  of  continuing  any  longer  the  struggle  for  his  crown,  and 
was  only  prevented  from  abandoning  the  country  by  the  more 
rnascidine  spirits  of  his  mistress  and  his  queen.  Yet  neither  they^ 
nor  the  boldest  of  Charles's  captains,  could  have  shoA^n  him 
where  to  find  resources  for  prolonging  the  war ;  and  least  of  all 
could  any  human  skill  have  predicted  the  quarter  whence  reBCU« 
was  to  come  to  Orleans  and  to  France. 


222  JOAN    OF    arc's    V^ICTORY 

In  tiie  village  of  Domremy,  on  the  borders  of  Lorraine,  thure 
wat  a  pojr  peasant  of  the  name  of  Jacques  d'Aro,  respected  in 
his  station  of  life,  and  who  had  reared  a  family  in  virtuous  habita 
and  in  the  practice  of  the  strictest  devotion.  His  eldest  daughter 
was  named  by  her  parents  Jeannette,  but  she  was  called  Jeanne 
by  the  French,  vi'^hich  was  LatLiized  into  Johanna,  and  Ajigli- 
eii  )d  intc  Joan.* 

A.t  the  time  when  Joan  first  attracted  attention,  she  was  about 
eighteen  years  of  age.  She  was  naturally  of  a  susceptible  iispo- 
gition,  which  diligent  attention  to  the  legends  of  saints  and  talea 
of  fairies,  aided  by  the  dreamy  loneliness  of  her  life  while  tend- 
ing her  father's  flocks, f  had  made  peculiarly  prone  to  enthusiastic 
fervor.  At  the  same  time,  she  was  eminent  for  piety  and  purity 
of  soul,  and  for  her  compassionate  gentleness  to  the  sick  and  the 
distressed. 

The  district  where  she  dwelt  had  escaped  comparatively  free 
from  the  ravages  of  war,  but  the  approach  of  roving  bands  of 

*  "Respondit  quod  in  partibiis  suis  vocabatur  Johanneta,  et  postquam 
venit  in  Franciain  vocaia  est  Jolianna." — Proces  dc  Jeanne  d'Arc,  i.,  p.  46. 

+  Southey.  in  one  of  the  speeches  which  he  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Joan 
of  Arc,  has  made  her  beautifully  describe  the  effect  on  her  mind  of  the 
scenery  in  which  she  dwelt. 

"Here  in  solitude  and  peace 
My  soul  was  nursed,  amid  the  loveliest  scenes 
Of  unpolluted  nature.     Sweet  it  was. 
As  the  while  mist.s  of  morning  roll'd  away, 
To  see  the  mountain's  wooded  heights  appear 
Dark  in  the  early  dawn,  and  mark  its  slope 
Willi  gorse-flowers  glowing,  as  the  rising  sun 
On  the  golden  ripeness  pour'd  a  deepening  light. 
Pleasant  at  noon  beside  the  vocal  brook 
To  lay  me  down,  and  watch  the  floating  clouds, 
And  shape  to  Fancy's  wild  similitudes 
Their  ever-varying  forms  ;  and  oh  !  how  sweet, 
To  drive  my  flock  at  evening  to  the  fold, 
And  hasten  to  our  little  hul,  and  hear 
The  voice  of  kindness  bid  me  welcome  home." 
The  only  foundation  for  the  story  told  by  the  Burgnndian  partisan  Mod- 
%trtlet,  and  adopted  by  Hume,  of  Joan  having  been  brought  up  as  a  scrv. 
ant,  is  the  circumstance  of  her  having  b(;en  once,  with  the  rest  of  hei 
family,  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  an  aubergc  in  Neufchateau  for  fifteen  days, 
when  a  jiarty  of  Burgundian  cavalry  made  an  incursion  into  Domremy 
(See  the  "  Quarterly  Review,"  No.  138.) 


AT     ORLEANS.  'Ziil 

Burguiidiati  or  English  troops  frequently  spreaa  terror  throueb 
Doinrcmy.  Once  the  village  had  been  plundered  by  some  of 
iliese  marauders,  and  Joan  and  her  family  had  been  driven  from 
tlieii  home,  and  forced  to  seek  refuge  for  a  time  at  Neufchateau 
The  peasantry  in  Domremy  were  principally  attached  to  the 
house  of  Orleans  and  the  dauphin,  and  all  the  miseries  which 
Frau-'e  endured  were  there  imputed  to  tlie  Burguudian  facti;)i] 
and  their  allies,  the  English,  who  were  seeking  to  enclave  unhap- 
py France. 

Thus,  from  infancy  to  girlhood,  Joan  had  heard  continually  of 
the  woes  of  the  war,  and  had  herself  witnessed  some  of  the 
M'retcheduess  that  it  caused.  A  feeling  of  intense  patriotism 
grew  in  her  with  her  growth.  The  deliverance  of  France  from 
the  Enghsh  was  the  subject  of  her  reveries  by  day  and  her 
dreams  by  night.  Blended  with  these  aspirations  were  recol- 
lections of  the  miraculous  interpositions  of  Heaven  in  favor  of  the 
oppressed,  which  she  had  learned  from  the  legends  of  her  Church. 
Her  faith  was  undoubting  ;  her  prayers  were  fervent.  "  She 
feared  no  danger,  for  she  felt  no  sin,"  and  at  length  she  believed 
herself  to  have  received  the  supernatural  inspiration  which  she 
sought. 

According  to  her  own  narrative,  delivered  by  her  to  her  mer 
ciless  inquisitors  in  the  time  of  her  captivity  and  approaching 
death,  she  was  about  thirteen  years  old  when  her  revelations  com- 
menced. Her  own  words  describe  them  best.*  "  At  the  age  of 
thirteen,  a  voice  from  God  came  to  her  to  help  her  in  ruling  her- 
self, and  that  voice  came  to  her  about  the  hour  of  noon,  in  sum- 
mer time,  while  she  was  in  her  father's  garden.  And  she  had 
fasted  the  day  before.  And  she  heard  the  voice  on  her  right,  in 
the  direciion  of  the  church  ;  and  when  she  heard  the  voice,  she 
saw  also  a  I  right  light."  Afterward  St.  Michael,  and  St.  Mai- 
garst,  and  St  Catharine  appeared  to  her.  They  were  always  in 
a  hilo  of  glory  ;  she  could  see  that  their  heads  were  crowned  with 
jewels  ;  and  she  heard  their  voices,  which  were  sweet  and  mild. 
Sh«'.  did  not  distinguish  their  arms  or  limbs.  She  heard  them 
HOT  3  frequently  than  she  saw  them  ;  and  the  usual  time  when 
she  heard  them  was  when  the  churcli  bells  were  sounding  for 
prayer.  And  if  she  was  in  the  woods  when  she  heard  thcni;  she 
noiUd  plainly  distinguish  their  voices  drawing  near  tc  hei .  W'  hen 
*  "  Proces  de  Jeanne  d'Arc,"  vol.  i.,  p  52 


224  JOAN     OF     arc's     ViSTORl 

she  thought  that  she  discerned  the  Heavenly  Voices,  she  knelt 
down,  and  bowed  herself  to  the  ground.  Their  presence  glad- 
dened her  even  to  tears  ;  and  after  they  departed,  she  wept  be- 
cause they  had  not  taken  her  with  them  back  to  Paradise.  They 
always  spoke  soothingly  to  her.  They  told  her  that  France  would 
be  saved,  and  that  she  was  to  save  it.  Sach  were  the  visiosis 
and  the  voices  that  moved  the  spiri  t  of  the  girl  of  thirteen  ;  an 
as  she  grew  older,  they  became  m>re  frequent  and  more  clear 
At  last  the  tidings  of  the  siege  of  Orleans  reached  Domremy. 
Joan  heard  her  parents  and  neigt.bors  talk  of  the  sufierings  of 
its  population,  of  the  ruin  which  its  capture  would  bring  on  their 
lawful  sovereign,  and  of  the  distress  of  the  dauphin  and  his  court. 
Joan's  heart  was  sorely  troubled  at  the  thought  of  the  fate  of 
Orleans  ;  and  her  Voices  now  ordered  her  to  leave  her  home  ; 
and  warned  her  that  she  was  the  instrument  chosen  by  Heaven 
for  driving  away  the  English  from  that  city,  and  for  taking  the 
dauphin  to  be  anointed  king  at  Rheims.  At  length  she  inform- 
ed her  parents  of  her  divine  mission,  and  told  them  that  she 
must  go  to  the  Sire  de  Baudricourt,  who  commanded  at  Vaucou 
leurs,  and  who  was  the  appointed  person  to  bring  her  into  the 
presence  of  the  king,  whom  she  was  to  save.  Neither  the  anger 
noi  the  grief  of  her  parents,  who  said  that  they  would  rather  see 
her  drowned  than  exposed  to  the  contamination  of  the  camp, 
could  move  her  from  her  purpose.  One  of  her  uncles  consented 
to  take  her  to  Vauoouleurs,  where  De  Baudricourt  at  first  thought 
her  mad,  and  derided  her ;  but  by  degrees  was  led  to  believe,  if 
not  in  her  inspiration,  at  least  in  her  enthusiasm,  and  in  its  pos- 
sible utility  to  the  dauphin's  cause. 

Tlie  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleurs  were  completely  won  over  to 
her  side  by  the  piety  and  devoulness  M'hich  she  displayed,  and 
by  her  firm  assurance  in  the  truth  of  her  mission.  She  told  them 
that  it  was  God's  will  that  r,he  should  go  to  the  king,  and  that 
,10  one  but  her  could  save  the  kingdom  of  France.  She  said  that 
she  herself  would  rather  remain  with  her  poor  mother,  and  spin; 
but  the  Lord  had  ordered  her  forth.  The  fame  of  "  The  Maid/"* 
as  she  was  termed,  the  renown  of  her  holiness,  and  of  her  mis- 
sion,  spread  far  and  wide.  Baudricourt  sent  her  with  an  escoit 
to  Cliinon,  where  the  Dauphin  Charles  was  dallying  away  hid 
time.  Her  Voices  had  bidden  her  assume  the  arms  and  the  ap« 
paiel  of  a  knight ;  and  the  wjalthiest  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleurii 


AY     ORLEANS.  22d 

had  vied  v/ith  each  other  in  equipping  her  with  war-hoKO,  aiinor. 
and  sword.  On  reaching  Chinon,  she  was,  after  Bome  delay,  ad- 
milled  into  the  presence  of  tlie  dauphin.  Charles  designedly 
dressed  himself  far  less  richly  than  many  of  his  courtiers  were 
appareled,  and  mingled  with  them,  when  Joan  was  inti'oduced, 
iji  order  to  see  if  the  Holy  Maid  would  address  her  exhortations 
to  the  wrong  person.  But  she  instantly  singled  him  out,  an  J 
kneeling  before  him,  said,  "  Most  noble  dauphin,  the  King  ol 
Heaven  announces  to  you  by  me  that  you  shall  be  anointed  and 
crowned  king  in  the  city  of  Rheims,  and  that  you  shall  be  his 
vicegerent  in  France."  His  features  may  probably  have  been 
teen  by  her  previously  in  portraits,  or  have  been  described  to  her 
by  others  ;  but  she  herself  believed  that  her  Voices  inspired  her 
when  she  addressed  the  king  ;*  and  the  report  soon  spread  abroad 
that  the  Holy  Maid  had  found  the  king  by  a  miracle  ;  and  this, 
with  many  other  similar  rumors,  augmented  the  renown  and  in- 
fluence that  she  now  rapidly  acquired. 

The  state  of  public  feeling  in  France  was  now  favorable  to  an 
enthusiastic  belief  in  a  divine  interposition  in  favor  of  the  party 
that  had  hitherto  been  unsuccessful  and  oppressed.  The  humil- 
iations which  had  befallen  the  French  royal  family  and  nobility 
were  looked  on  as  the  just  judgments  of  God  upon  them  for  their 
vice  and  impiety.  The  misfortunes  that  had  come  upon  Franco 
as  a  nation  were  believed  to  have  been  drawn  down  by  national 
sins.  The  English,  who  had  been  the  instruments  of  Heaven's 
wrath  against  France,  seemed  now,  by  their  pride  and  cruelty, 
to  be  fitting  objects  of  it  themselves.  France  in  that  age  was  a 
profoundly  religious  country.  There  was  ignorance,  there  was  su- 
perstition, there  was  bigotry  ;  but  there  was  Faith — a  faith  that 
itself  worked  true  miracles,  even  while  it  believed  in  unreal  ones. 
A  t  this  time,  also,  one  ol  those  devotional  movements  began 
among  the  clergy  in  France,  which  from  time  to  time  occur  in 
national  churches,  without  it  being  possible  for  the  historian  to 
assign  any  adequate  human  cause  for  their  immediate  date  or 
extension.  Numberless  friars  and  priests  traversed  the  rural  dis- 
tricts and  towns  of  France,  preaching  to  the  people  that  thev 
must  seek  from  Heaven  a  deliverance  from  the  pillages  o.l  tho 
•oldiery  and  the  insolence  of  the  foreign  oppressors.!     The  idea 

*  "  Pioces  de  Je;uine  d'.\rc,"  vol.  i.,  p.  56. 
t  See  Sismondi,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  114;  Michelet,  vol.  v.,  livre  I 
K2 


'dim  JOAN     OF     ABC'S     VICTOKT 

of  a  Providence  that  works  only  by  general  laws  was  whoJ')  aii'jn 
to  the  feeUngs  of  the  age.  Eveiy  political  event,  as  well  as  ev 
ery  natural  plipenomenoii,  was  believed  to  be  the  immediate  re- 
sult of  a  special  mandate  of  God.  This  led  to  the  belief  that  his 
holy  angels  and  saints  were  constantly  employed  in  executing  hii 
commands  and  mingling  in  the  aflairs  of  men.  The  Church  en- 
Lioiirigod  these  feelings,  and  at  the  same  time  sanctioned  the  coii' 
current  popular  belief  that  hosts  of  evil  spirits  were  ^Iso  ever  act- 
ively inter] losing  in  the  current  of  earthly  events,  with  whom  sor- 
cerers and  wizards  could  league  themselves,  and  thereby  obtaio 
the  exercise  of  supernatural  power. 

Thus  all  things  favored  the  influence  which  Joan  obtained 
both  over  friends  and  foes.  The  French  nation,  as  well  as  the 
English  and  the  Burgundians,  readily  admitted  that  superhuman 
beings  inspired  her  ;  the  only  question  was  whether  these  beings 
were  good  or  evil  angels  ;  whether  she  brought  with  her  "  airs 
from  heaven  or  blasts  from  hell."  This  question  seemed  to  her 
countrymen  to  be  decisively  settled  in  her  favor  by  the  austere 
sanctity  of  her  life,  by  the  holiness  of  her  convei'sation,  but  still 
more  by  her  exemplary  attention  to  aU  the  services  and  rites  of 
the  Church.  The  dauphin  at  first  feared  the  injury  that  might 
be  done  to  his  cause  if  he  laid  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  hav- 
ing leagued  himself  Math  a  sorceress.  Every  imaginable  test, 
therefore,  was  resorted  to  in  order  to  set  Joan's  orthodoxy  and 
purity  beyond  suspicion.  At  last  Charles  and  his  advisers  felt 
safe  in  accepting  her  services  as  those  of  a  true  and  virtuous 
Christian  daughter  of  the  Holy  Church. 

It  is  indeed  probable  that  Charles  himself  and  some  of  hie 
counselors  may  have  suspected  Joan  of  being  a  mere  enthusiast, 
and  it  is  certain  that  Dunois,  and  others  of  the  best  generals,  took 
considerable  latitude  in  obeying  or  deviating  from  the  military 
orders  that  she  gave.  But  over  the  mass  of  the  people  and  the 
soldiery  lier  influence  was  unbounded.  While  Charles  and  hia 
doctors  of  theology,  and  court  ladies,  had  been  deliberating  as  tc 
recognizing  or  dismissing  the  Maid,  a  considerable  period  1  id 
passed  away,  during  which  a  small  army,  the  last  gleanings,  ai 
It  seemed,  of  the  English  sword,  had  been  assembled  at  Blois, 
unjor  Dunois,  La  Hire,  Xaini rallies,  and  other  chiefs,  who  to 
their  natural  valor  were  now  beginning  1o  unite  the  wisdom  that 
is  taught  by  misfortune.     It  was  resolved  to  send  Joan  with  this 


Al     ORLEANS.  22V 

force  and  a  convoy  of  provisions  to  Orleans.  The  distress  of  that 
city  had  now  become  urgent.  But  the  communication  vi'ilh  the 
open  country  was  not  entirely  cut  ofl":  the  Orleannais  had  heard 
of  the  Holy  Maid  whom  Providence  had  raised  up  lor  their  de- 
liverance, and  their  messengers  earnestly  implored  the  dauphin 
til  send  her  to  them  without  delay. 

Joan  appeared  at  the  camp  at  Blois,  clad  in  a  new  suit  of 
i/iilliaut  white  armor,  mounted  on  a  stately  black  wai'-horse,  and 
«vith  a  lance  in  her  right  hand,  which  she  had  learned  to  wield 
with  skill  and  grace. *"  Her  head  was  unhelmeted  ;  so  that  all 
could  behold  her  fair  and  expressive  features,  her  deep-set  and 
earnest  eyes,  and  her  long  black  hair,  which  was  parted  across 
her  forehead,  and  bound  by  a  ribbon  behind  her  back.  She  wore 
at  her  side  a  small  battle-ax,  and  the  consecrated  sword,  marked 
on  the  blade  with  five  crosses,  which  had  at  her  bidding  beeu 
taken  for  her  from  the  shrine  of  St.  Catharine  at  Fierbois.  A 
page  carried  her  banner,  which  she  had  caused  to  be  made  and 
embroidered  as  her  Voices  enjoined.  It  was  white  satin, t  strewn 
with  fleurs-de-lis  ;  and  on  it  were  the  words  "  Jhesus  Maria," 
and  the  representation  of  the  Savior  in  his  glory.  Joan  after- 
ward generally  bore  her  banner  herself  in  battle  ;  she  said  that 
though  she  loved  her  sword  much,  she  loved  her  banner  forty 
times  as  much  ;  and  she  loved  to  carry  it,  because  it  could  not 
kill  any  one. 

Thus  accoutered,  she  came  to  lead  the  troops  of  France,  who 
looked  with  soldierly  admiration  on  her  well-proportioned  and 
upright  figure,  the  skill  with  which  she  managed  her  war-horse, 
and  the  easy  grace  with  which  she  handled  her  weapons.  Her 
military  education  had  been  short,  but  she  had  availed  herself 
of  it  well.  She  had  also  the  good  sense  to  interfere  httle  with 
the  maneuvers  of  the  troops,  leaving  these  things  to  Dunois,  and 
others  whom  she  had  the  discernment  to  recognize  as  the  best 
officers  in  the  camp.  Her  tactics  in  action  were  simple  enough. 
As  she  herself  described  it,  "  I  used  to  say  to  them,  '  Go  boldly 
in  among  the  English,'  and  then  I  used  to  go  boldly  in  myself  "4 

*  See  tlie  descri(jtion  of  her  by  Gui  de  Laval,  quoted  in  the  note  lOiMi- 
CLfciet,,  f.  69  ;  and  see  the  iiccoiinl  of  the  banner  at  Oi  leans,  whicii  is  be- 
lieved to  bear  an  authentic  portrait  of  the  Maid,  in  Mmray's  "Hand-buofc 
for  France,"  p  175. 

♦  "  Proces  de  Jeanne  d'Arc,"  vol.  i.,  p.  238.  t  Id.  ib 


228  JOAN     OF     arc's      VIUIORT 

Such,  as  she  told  her  inquisitors,  was  the  only  spell  she  used,  and 
it  was  one  of  power.  But  while  interfering  little  with  the  mill 
tary  discipline  of  the  troops,  in  all  matters  of  moral  discipline  she 
was  inflexibly  strict.  All  the  abandoned  followers  of  the  camp 
were  driven  away.  She  compelled  both  generals  and  soldiers  to 
attend  regularly  at  confessional.  Her  chaplain  and  other  priests 
marched  with  the  army  under  her  orders  ;  and  at  every  lialt,  an 
altar  was  set  up  and  the  sacrament  administered.  No  oath,  or 
foul  language  passed  without  punishment  or  censure.  Even  the 
roughest  and  most  hardened  veterans  obeyed  her.  They  put  off 
for  a  time  the  bestial  coarseness  which  had  grown  on  them  dur- 
ing a  life  of  bloodshed  and  rapine  ;  they  felt  that  they  must  go 
forth  in  a  new  spirit  to  a  new  career,  and  acknowledged  the 
beauty  of  the  holiness  in  which  the  heaven-sent  Maid  was  lead- 
ing them  to  certain  victory. 

Joan  marched  from  Blois  on  the  25th  of  April  with  a  convoy 
of  provisions  for  Orleans,  accompanied  by  Dunois,  La  Hire,  and 
the  other  chief  captains  of  the  French,  and  on  the  evening  of  the 
28th  they  approached  the  town.  In  the  words  of  the  old  cliron 
icier  Hall  :*  "  The  Englishmen,  perceiving  that  thei  within  could 
not  long  continue  for  faute  of  vitaile  and  ponder,  kepte  not  their 
watche  so  diligently  as  thei  were  accustomed,  nor  scoured  now 
the  countrcy  environed  as  thei  before  had  ordained,  Whiche  neg 
ligence  the  citizens  shut  in  perceiving,  sent  worde  thereof  to  the 
French  captaines,  which,  with  Pucelle,  in  the  dedde  tyme  of  the 
uighte,  and  in  a  greate  rayne  and  thundere,  with  all  their  vitaile 
and  artillery,  entered  into  the  eitie." 

When  it  was  day,  the  Maid  rode  in  solemn  procession  through 
the  city,  clad  in  complete  armor,  and  mounted  on  a  white  horse. 
Dunois  was  by  her  side,  and  all  the  bravest  knights  of  her  army 
and  of  the  garrison  followed  in  her  train.  The  whole  population 
thronged  around  her  ;  and  men,  women,  and  children  strove  to 
touch  her  garments,  or  her  banner,  or  her  charger.  They  pour- 
ed forth  blessings  on  her,  whom  they  already  considered  thoir  de- 
liverer. In  the  words  used  by  two  of  them  afterward  before  the 
tribunal  which  reversed  the  sentence,  but  could  not  restore  the 
iife  of  the  Virgin-martyr  of  France,  "  the  people  of  Orleans,  wheir. 
th3y  nr.«t  saw  her  in  their  city,  tliought  that  it  was  an  angel 
from  heaven  that  hid  come  dowu  to  save  them."  Joaa  spokn) 
•  Hall,  f.  127. 


AT     ORLEAVo.  229 

/gently  iu  reply  to  their  acclamations  and  addresses.  She  toid 
tlieiii  to  fear  God,  and  trust  iu  Him  foi  safety  from  tne  fury  of 
their  enemies  She  first  went  to  the  principal  church,  where 
Te  Dcitm  was.  chanted  ;  and  then  slie  took  up  her  abode  at  the 
liousc  of  Jacques  Bourgier,  one  of  the  principal  citizens,  and  whose 
wife  was  a  matron  of  good  repute.  She  refused  to  attend  a  splen- 
did banquet  which  had  been  provided  for  her,  and  passed  nearly 
ill!  her  time  in  prayer. 

When  it  was  known  by  the  English  that  the  Maid  was  in  Or 
l»>ans,  theii  minds  weve  not  less  occupied  about  her  than  were 
the  minds  of  those  in  the  city ;  but  it  was  in  a  very  difierent 
spirit.  The  English  believed  in  her  supernatural  mission  as 
firmly  as  the  French  did,  but  they  thought  her  a  sorceress  who 
had  come  to  overthrow  them  by  her  enchantments.  An  old 
prophecy,  which  told  that  a  damsel  from  Lorraine  was  to  save 
France,  had  long  been  current,  and  it  was  known  and  applied 
to  Joan  by  foreigners  as  well  as  by  the  natives.  For  months 
the  English  had  heard  of  the  coming  Maid,  and  the  tales  of  mir- 
acles which  she  was  said  to  have  wrought  had  been  listened  to 
by  the  rough  yeomen  of  the  English  camp  with  anxious  curiosity 
and  secret  awe.  She  had  sent  a  herald  to  the  English  generals 
before  she  marched  for  Orleans,  and  he  had  summoned  the  En- 
glish generals  in  the  name  of  the  Most  High  to  give  up  to  the 
Maid,  who  was  sent  by  Heaven,  the  keys  of  the  French  cities 
which  they  had  wrongfully  taken  ;  and  he  also  solemnly  adjured 
the  English  troops,  whether  archers,  or  men  of  the  companies  of 
war,  or  gentlemen,  or  others,  who  were  before  the  city  of  Or- 
leans, to  depart  thence  to  their  homes,  under  peril  of  being  visit- 
ed by  tne  judgment  of  God.  On  her  arrival  in  Orleans,  Joan 
sent  another  similar  message  ;  but  the  English  scofi'ed  at  her 
from  their  towers,  and  threatened  to  burn  her  heralds.  She  de- 
termined, before  she  shed  the  blood  of  the  besiegers,  to  repeat  the 
warning  with  her  own  voice  ;  and  accordingly,  she  mounted  one 
of  the  boulevards  of  the  town,  which  was  within  hearing  of  the 
Tourelles,  and  thence  she  spoke  to  the  English,  and  bade  thera 
dt  part  otherwise  they  would  meet  with  shame  and  woe.  Sif 
William  Ciladsdale  (whom  the  French  call  Glacidas)  command- 
ed the  English  post  at  the  Tourelles,  and  ho  and  another  En* 
glish  ofllcer  replied  by  bidding  her  go  home  and  keep  her  cows, 
and  by  ribald  jests,  that  bi  ">ught  tears  of  shame  and  indignation 


230  lOAN    OF    ASC'S    VICTORT 

into  her  eyes.  But,  though  the  English  leaders  vaunted  aloud, 
the  efl'ect  produced  on  their  army  by  Joan's  presence  in  Orleans 
was  proved  four  days  after  her  arrival,  when,  on  the  approach 
of  re-enforcements  and  stores  to  the  town,  Joan  and  La  Hire 
marched  out  to  meet  them,  and  escorted  the  long  train  of  provi- 
sion wagons  safely  into  Orleans,  between  "he.  bastilles  of  the  En 
glish,  Avho  cowered  behind  their  walls  inste?d  of  charging  fierce' 
ly  and  fearlessly,  as  had  been  their  won',  on  any  French  baud 
that  dared  to  shoAV  itself  \\Tlhui  reach. 

Thus  far  she  had  prevailed  without  sti iking  a  blow  ;  but  the 
lime  was  now  come  to  test  her  courage  amid  the  horrors  of  ac- 
tual slaughter.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  wliich  she  had 
escorted  the  re-enforcements  into  the  city,  while  she  was  resting 
fatigued  at  home,  Dunois  had  seized  an  advantageous  opportuni- 
ty of  attacking  the  English  bastille  of  St.  Loup,  and  a  fierce  a,s- 
sault  of  the  Orleannais  had  been  made  on  it,  which  the  Englisii 
garrison  of  the  fort  stubbornly  resisted.  Joan  was  roused  by  s- 
sound  which  she  believed  to  be  that  of  her  Heavenly  Voices  ;  sht 
called  for  her  arms  and  horse,  and,  quickly  equipping  herself,  she 
mounted  to  ride  oft^  to  M'here  the  fight  was  raging.  In  her  haste 
she  had  forgotten  her  banner  ;  she  rode  back,  and,  without  dis- 
mounting, had  it  given  to  her  from  the  window,  and  then  she 
galloped  to  the  gate  whence  the  sally  had  been  made.  On  hex 
way  she  met  some  of  the  wounded  French  who  had  been  car- 
ried back  from  the  fight.  Ha  !"  she  exckvimed,  "  I  never  can 
see  French  blood  flow  without  my  hair  standing  on  end."  She 
rode  out  of  the  gate,  and  met  the  tide  of  her  countrymen,  who 
liad  been  repulsed  from  the  English  fort,  and  were  flying  back 
to  Orleans  in  confusion.  At  the  sight  of  the  Holy  Maid  and  hei 
banner  they  rallied,  and  renewed  the  assault.  Joan  rode  for- 
ward at  their  head,  waving  her  banner  and  cheering  them  on. 
The  English  quailed  at  M'hat  they  believed  to  be  the  charge  of 
hell ;  Saint  Loup  was  stormed,  and  its  defenders  put  to  the  sword, 
except  some  few,  whom  Joan  succeeded  in  saving.  All  her 
woman's  gentleness  returned  when  the  combat  was  over.  It  was 
the  first  time  that  she  had  ever  seen  a  battle-field.  She  wcp' 
at  the  sight  of  so  many  bleeding  corpses  ;  and  her  tears  flowed 
doul>ly  when  slie  reflected  that  they  were  the  bodies  of  Christian 
men  who  had  died  without  confession. 

The  next  day  was  Ascension  day,  and  it  was  passei  by  Joan 


AT     OKLEANS  2*il 

u  prayer.  But  on  the  following  morrow  it  was  resolved  by  liio 
chiefs  of  the  garrison  to  attack  the  English  forts  on  the  south  of 
tlie  river.  For  this  purpose  they  crossed  the  river  in  boats,  and 
after  some  severe  fighting,  in  w^hich  the  Maid  was  wounded  iu 
the  h^cl,  both  the  English  bastilles  of  the  Augustins  and  St.  Jean 
d<'  Blanc  Avere  captured.  The  Tourelles  were  now  the  only  post 
which  the  besiegers  held  on  the  south  of  the  river.  But  that 
post  was  formidably  strong,  and  by  its  command  of  the  bridge,  it 
wa,3  the  key  to  the  deliverance  of  Orleans.  It  was  known  that 
a  fresh  English  army  was  approaching  under  Fasloli'e  to  re-en- 
force the  besiegers,  and  should  that  army  arrive  while  the  Tou- 
relles were  yet  in  the  possession  of  their  comrades,  there  wae 
great  peril  of  all  the  advantages  which  the  French  had  gained 
being  nullified,  and  of  the  siege  being  again  actively  carried  oji. 

It  was  resolved,  therefore,  by  the  French  to  assail  the  Tourel- 
les at  once,  M'hile  the  enthusiasm  which  the  presence  and  the  he- 
roic valor  of  the  Maid  had  created  was  at  its  height.  But  tbe 
enterprise  was  difficult.  The  rampart  of  the  tete-du-pont,  or 
landward  bulwark,  of  the  Tourelles  was  steep  and  high,  and  Sir 
John  Gladsdale  occupied  this  all-important  fort  with  five  hund- 
red archers  and  men-at-arms,  who  were  the  very  flower  of  the 
English  army. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  seventh  of  May,  some  thousands 
of  the  best  French  troops  in  Orleans  heard  mass  and  attended  the 
confessional  by  Joan's  orders,  and  then  crossing  the  river  in  boats, 
as  on  the  preceding  day,  they  assailed  the  bulwark  of  the  Ton 
relies  "  with  light  hearts  and  heavy  hands."  But  Gladsdale'e 
men,  encouraged  by  their  bold  and  skillful  leader,  made  a  reso- 
lute and  able  defense.  The  Maid  planted  her  banner  on  the 
edge  of  the  fosse,  and  then  springing  down  into  the  ditch,  she 
placed  tlie  first  ladder  against  the  wall,  and  began  to  mount.  An 
English  archer  sent  an  arrow  at  her,  which  pierced  her  corslet, 
and  wounded  her  severely  between  the  neck  and  shoulder.  She 
fell  bleeding  from  the  ladder ;  and  the  English  were  leaping 
Jowii  from  the  wall  to  capture  her,  but  her  followers  bore  her  ofT. 
^lle  was  carried  to  the  rear,  and  laid  upon  the  grass  ;  her  armor 
was  taken  off,  and  the  anguish  of  her  wound  and  the  sight  of  hci 
blood  made  her  at  first  tremble  and  weep.  But  her  conlldence 
in  her  celestial  mission  soon  returned  :  her  patron  saints  seemed 
to  stand  before  her,  and  reassiue  her.     She  sat  up  and  drew  the 


232  JO^N     OF     ART    S     VIOVORT 

arrow  ou.  wi.h  her  own  hands.  Some  of  the  soldiers  "W'ho  Btoo'l 
by  wished  to  stanch  the  blood  by  saying  a  charm  over  the  wound ; 
but  she  forbade  them,  saying  that  she  did  not  wish  to  be  cured 
by  unhallowed  means.  She  had  the  wound  dressed  with  a  little 
oiJ,  and  then  bidding  her  confessor  come  to  her.  she  betook  her- 
Eelf  to  prayer. 

In  the  mean  while,  the  English  in  the  bulwark  of  the  Tourel- 
]&%  had  repulsed  the  oft-renewed  efforts  of  the  French  to  scale  the 
wall.  Dunois,  who  commanded  the  assailants,  was  at  last  dis- 
couraged, and  gave  orders  for  a  retreat  to  be  sounded.  Joan  sent 
for  him  and  the  other  generals,  and  implored  them  not  to  despair. 
"  By  my  God,"  she  said  to  them,  "  you  shall  soon  enter  in  there. 
Do  not  doubt  it.  When  you  see  my  banner  wave  again  up  to  the 
wall,  to  your  arms  again !  the  fort  is  yours.  For  the  present, 
rest  a  little,  and  take  some  food  and  drink."  "  They  did  so,' 
says  the  old  chronicler  of  the  siege,*  "  for  they  obeyed  her  mar- 
velously."  The  faintness  caused  by  her  wound  had  now  passed 
off,  and  she  headed  the  French  in  another  rush  against  the  bul- 
wark. The  English,  who  had  thought  her  slain,  were  alarmed 
at  her  reappearance,  while  the  French  pressed  furiousiy  and  fa- 
natically forward.  A  Biscayan  soldier  was  carrying  Joan's  ban- 
ner. She  had  told  the  troops  that  directly  the  bannei  touched 
the  wall,  they  should  enter.  The  Biscayan  waved  the  banner 
forward  from  the  edge  of  the  fosse,  and  touched  the  wall  with  it ; 
and  then  all  the  French  host  SM'armed  madly  up  the  ladders  that 
now  were  raised  in  all  directions  against  the  English  fort.  At 
this  crisis,  the  efforts  of  the  English  garrison  were  distracted  by 
an  attack  from  another  quarter.  The  French  troops  who  had 
been  left  in  Orleans  had  placed  some  planks  over  the  broken  arch 
of  the  bridge,  and  advanced  across  them  to  the  assault  of  the  Tou- 
relles  on  the  northern  side.  Gladsdale  resolved  to  withdraw  his 
men  from  the  landward  bulwark,  and  concentrate  his  whole  force 
in  the  TourcUes  theinsel.ves.  He  was  passing  for  this  purpose 
across  the  draw-bridge  that  connected  the  Tourelles  and  the  teto- 
du  pont,  when  Joan,  who  by  this  time  had  scaled  the  wall  of  the 
iuiwark,  called  out  to  him,  "  Surrender  I  surrender  to  the  King  of 
Iliaven  Ah,  Glacidas,  you  have  foully  M^ronged  nie  with  your 
words,  but  I  have  great  pity  on  your  soul  and  the  souls  of  youj 
men"  The  Englishman,  disdainiVi'  of  her  summons,  was  strid- 
*  "Journal  du  Si^ge  d'Orleans,"  p.  87. 


AT     C   K  L  E A  N3  2od 

mg  Oil  across  the  draAv-bridf^e,  when  a  cannon  shot  from  the  town 
carried  it  a\vaJ^  and  Gladsdale  perishec  .n  the  water  that  ran 
b*;iieath.  After  his  fall,  the  remnant  of  the  Eng^Iish  abaiulouod 
all  farther  rcsislance.  Three  hundred  of  them  had  been  killed 
in  the  batlle,  and  tM'o  hundred  were  made  prisoners. 

Thj  broken  arch  was  speedily  repaired  by  the  exnlting  Orlean- 
nais,  and  Joan  made  her  triumphal  re-entry  into  the  oity  by  ths 
bridgo  that  had  so  long  been  closed.  Every  church  in  Orleans 
rang  out  its  gratulating  peal  ;  and  throughout  the  night,  the 
Bounds  of  rejoicing  echoed,  and  the  bonfires  blazed  up  from  the 
city.  But  in  the  lines  and  forts  which  the  besiegers  yet  retained 
on  the  northern  shore,  there  was  anxious  watching  of  the  gener 
als,  and  there  was  desponding  gloom  among  the  soldiery.  Even 
Talbot  now  counseled  retreat.  On  the  following  morning,  the 
Orleannais,  from  their  walls,  saw  the  great  forts  called  "  London" 
and  "  St.  Lawrence"  in  flames,  and  witnessed  their  invaders  busy 
in  destroying  the  stores  and  munitions  which  had  been  relied  on 
for  the  destruction  of  Orleans.  Slowly  and  sullenly  the  English 
army  retired  ;  and  not  before  it  had  drawn  up  in  battle  array  op- 
posite to  the  city,  as  if  to  challenge  the  garrison  to  an  encounter. 
The  French  troops  were  eager  to  go  out  and  attack,  but  Joan  for- 
bade it.  The  day  was  Sunday.  "  In  the  name  of  God,"  she 
said,  "  let  them  depart,  and  let  us  return  thanks  to  God."  She 
led  the  soldiers  and  citizens  forth  from  Orleans,  but  not  for  the 
shedding  of  blood.  They  passed  in  solemn  procession  round  the 
city  walls,  and  then,  while  their  retiring  enemies  were  yet  in 
sight,  they  knelt  in  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  deliverance 
which  he  had  vouchsafed  them. 

Within  three  months  from  the  time  of  her  first  interview  with 
the  dauphin,  Joan  had  fulfilled  the  first  part  of  her  promise  the 
raising  of  the  siege  of  Orleans.  Within  three  months  more  she 
had  fulfilled  the  second  part  also,  and  had  stood  with  her  banner 
in  her  ban  J  by  the  high  altar  at  Rheims,  while  he  was  anointed 
and  crowned  as  King  Charles  VIL  of  France.  In  the  interval 
fihc  had  taken  Jargeau,  Troyes,  and  other  strong  places,  and  she 
had  defeated  an  English  army  in  a  fair  field  at  Patay.  The  en^ 
Ihusiasin  of  her  countryinen  knew  no  bounds  ;  but  the  import- 
ance of  her  services,  and  especially  of  her  primary  achievement 
at  Orleans,  may  perhaps  be  best  praved  by  the  testimony  of  hex 
".iiemies      There  is  extant  a  fragmant  of  a  letter  from  th'>.  R©« 


23  i  lOANOFARCSVJCTOHr 

gent  Bedford  to  liis  royal  nephew,  Henry  VI.,  Ie.  which  he  W 
wails  the  turn  that  the  Avar  has  taken,  and  especially  attributes 
it  to  the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Orleans  by  Joan.  Bedford  s  owu 
wonls,  which  are  preserved  in  Rymer,*  are  as  follows  : 

"  And  alle  thing  there  prospered  for  you  til  the  tyme  of  the 
Siege  of  Orleans  taken  in  hand  God  knoweth  by  what  advis. 

"  At  the  Vv'hiche  tyme,  after  the  adventure  fallen  to  the  pei 
gone  of  my  cousin  of  Salisbury,  whom  God  assoille,  there  felle,  by 
the  hand  of  God  as  it  seemeth,  a  great  strook  upon  your  peuple 
thai  was  assembled  there  in  grete  nombre,  caused  in  grete  partie, 
as  y  trowe,  of  lakke  of  sadde  beleve,  and  of  uulevefulle  doubte, 
that  thei  hadde  of  a  disciple  and  lyme  of  the  Feende,  called  the 
Pucelle,  that  used  fals  enchantments  and  sorcerie 

''  The  whiche  strooke  and  discomfiture  nott  oonly  lessed  m 
giete  partie  the  nombre  of  your  peuple  there,  but  as  weU  with' 
drewe  the  courage  of  the  remenant  in  merveillous  M'yse,  and 
couraiged  your  adverse  partie  and  ennernys  to  assemble  them 
forthwith  in  grete  nombre." 

When  Charles  had  been  anointed  King  of  France,  Joan  be- 
lieved that  her  mission  was  accomplished.  And,  in  truth,  the 
deliverance  of  France  from  the  English,  though  not  completed 
for  many  years  afterward,  was  then  insured.  The  ceremony  of 
a  royal  coronation  and  anointment  was  not  in  those  days  regarded 
as  a  mere  costly  formality.  It  was  believed  to  confer  the  sano 
tion  and  the  grace  of  Heaven  upon  the  prince,  who  had  previous 
ly  ruled  with  mere  human  authority.  Thenceforth  he  was  the 
Lord's  Anointed.  Moreover,  one  of  the  difficulties  that  had  pre- 
viously lain  in  the  way  of  many  Frenchmen  when  called  on  to 
support  Charles  VII.  was  now  removed.  He  had  been  publicl} 
stigmatized,  even  by  his  own  parents,  as  no  true  son  of  the  roya 
race  of  France.  The  queen-mother,  the  English,  and  the  parti 
sans  of  Burgundy  called  liini  the  "Pretender  to  the  title  of  Dau> 
phin  ;"  but  those  wlio  had  been  led  to  doubt  his  legitimacy  were 
(iured  of  their  skepticism  by  the  victories  of  the  Holy  Maid,  and 
by  tho  fulfillment  of  her  pledges.  They  thought  that  Heaven 
had  now  declaicd  itself  in  favor  of  Charles  as  the  true  heir  of  the 
crown  of  St.  Louis,  and  the  tales  about  his  being  spurious  werft 
thenceforth  regarded  as  mere  English  calumnies.  With  this 
Btrong  tide  of  national  feeling  in  his  favor,  with  victorious  g«n 
♦  Vol.  X.,  p  40f» 


■V,  /     ^     ^  ... 

AT    OELEANS.  ""^®^i  Cg/^         ^S*» 

eralfl  and  soldiers  round  him,  and  a  dispirited  and  divided  enemy 

beibro  him,  he  could  not  fail  to  conquer,  though  his  own  impru- 
dence and  misconduct,  and  the  stubborn  valor  which  tbe  English 
still  from  time  to  time  displayed,  prolonged  the  war  in  Franco 
'.uitL  the  civil  war  of  the  Roses  broke  out  in  England,  and  left 
France  to  peace  and  repose. 

Joan  knelt  before  the  French  king  in  the  cathedral  of  Rheims, 
acd  shed  tears  of  joy.  She  said  that  she  had  then  fulfilled  the 
work  which  the  Lord  had  commanded  her.  The  young  girl  now 
asked  for  her  dismissal.  She  wished  to  return  to  her  peasant 
home,  to  tend  her  parents'  flocks  again,  and  live  at  her  own  will 
in  her  native  village.*  She  had  always  believed  that  her  ca 
reer  would  be  a  short  one.  Bnt  Charles  and  his  captains  wert 
loth  to  lose  the  presence  of  one  who  had  such  an  influence  upon 
the  soldiery  and  the  people.  They  persuaded  her  to  stay  with 
the  army.  She  still  showed  the  same  bravery  and  zeal  for  the 
cause  of  France.  She  still  was  as  fervent  as  before  in  her  pray- 
ers, and  as  exemplary  in  all  religious  duties.  She  still  heard  her 
Heavenly  Voices,  but  she  now  no  longer  thought  herself  the  ap- 
pointed minister  of  Heaven  to  lead  her  countrymen  to  certain  vic- 
tory. Our  admiration  for  her  courage  and  patriotism  ought  to 
be  increased  a  hundred  fold  by  her  conduct  throughout  the  latter 
part  of  her  career,  amid  dangers,  against  which  she  no  longer 
believed  herself  to  be  divinely  secured.  Indeed,  she  believed  her- 
self doomed  to  perish  in  a  little  more  than  a  year  :t  but  she  still 
fought  on  as  resolutely,  if  not  as  exultingly  as  ever. 

As  in  the  case  of  Arminius,  the  interest  attached  to  individual 
heroism  and  virtue  makes  us  trace  tbe  fate  of  Joan  of  Arc  aftei 
she  had  saved  her  country.  She  served  well  with  Charles's 
army  in  the  capture  of  Laon,  Soissons,  Compiegne,  Beauvais,  anu 
ether  strong  places  ;  but  in  a  premature  attack  on  Paris,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1429,  the  French  were  repulsed,  and  Joan  was  severely 
'sj'ounded.  In  the  winter  she  was  again  in  the  field  with  some 
of  the  French  troops  ;  and  in  the  following  spring  she  threw  her- 
lelf  into  the  fortress  of  Compiegne,  which  she  had  herself  won 
for  the  French  king  in  the  preceding  autumn,  and  which  A\a8 
no"H'  besieged  by  a  strong  Burgundian  force. 

*  "Jf  voudrais  hien  qu'il  voulut  me  faire  ramener  aupres  mes  pere  el 
mure,  a  garder  leuis  biebis  et  betail,  et  (aire  ce  que  je  voudmis  faire." 

+  "Des  le  comnienceinent  elle  avail  dit,  '11  me  faut  employer:  je  at 
durerai  qu'un  an,  ou  guere  plus.'  " — Michelet,  v.,  p.  101. 


236  JOAN     OF    ARC    S     VICTORY     AT     ORLEANS. 

She  was  taken  prisoner  ir.  a  sally  from  Cornpiegne,  on  the  24lh 
oi"  May,  and  was  imprisoned  by  the  Burgundiaus  first  at  Arras, 
and  then  at  a  place  called  Crotoy,  on  the  Flemish  coast,  until 
November,  when,  for  payment  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  she  was 
given  up  to  the  English,  and  taken  to  Rouen,  which  then.  wa» 
Ihoir  main  stronghold  in  France. 

"  Sorrow  it  were,  and  shame  to  tell, 
The  butchery  that  there  befell." 

And  the  revolting  details  of  the  cruelties  practiced  upon  thia 
young  girl  may  be  left  to  those  whose  duty,  as  avowed  biogra> 
phers,  it  is  to  describe  them.*  She  was  tried  before  an  ecclesi- 
astical tribunal  on  the  charge  of  witchcraft,  and  on  the  30th  of 
May,  1431,  she  was  burned  alive  in  the  market-place  at  Rouen. 

I  will  add  but  one  remark  on  the  character  of  the  truest  he- 
roine that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

If  any  person  can  be  found  in  the  present  age  who  would  join 
in  the  scoffs  of  Voltaire  against  the  Maid  of  Orleans  and  the 
Heavenly  Voices  by  which  she  believed  herself  inspired,  let  him 
read  the  life  of  the  wisest  and  best  man  that  the  heathen  nations 
produced.  Let  him  read  of  the  Heavenly  Voice  by  which  Socra- 
tes believed  himself  to  be  constantly  attended  ;  which  cautioned 
him  on  his  way  from  the  field  of  battle  at  Delium,  and  whicli., 
from  his  boyhood  to  the  time  of  his  death,  visited  him  with  uu- 
earthly  warnings.!  Let  the  modern  reader  reflect  upon  this ; 
and  then,  unless  he  is  prepared  to  term  Socrates  either  fool  c 
impostor,  let  him  not  dare  to  deride  or  vihfy  Joan  of  Arc. 

*  The  whole  of  the  "  Proces  de  Condemnation  et  de  Rehabilitation  de 
(eanne  D'Arc"  has  been  published  in  five  volumes,  by  the  Societe  de 
ti'Histoire  de  France.  All  tlie  passages  from  contemporary  chroniclers 
and  poets  are  added  ;  and  the  most  ample  materials  are  thus  given  for 
acquiring  full  information  on  a  subject  which  is,  to  an  Englishman,  one 
of  painful  inldtest.  There  is  an  admirable  essay  on  Joan  of  Arc  in  the 
133lh  number  of  the  "Quarterly." 

t  See  Cicero,  de  Divinatione,  lib.  i.,  soc.  41  ;  and  see  the  words  of  Soc 
'Btes  himself,  in  Plato,  Apol.  Soc. :  'On  fioi  ^eiov  n  koI  daiuoviov  yly/trat. 
Emni  ii  tovt'  iariv  ix  rraidtx  uo^duevov,  ^^^  rtf  ^lyvo/iiv^,  «.  r.  X. 


SYK0P9IS     OF     EVENTS,     ETC.  83? 

SYNOPSIS  OP  Events  between  Joan  of  Arc's  Victor?  at  Or* 

LEANS,  A.D.  1429,  AND  THE  DeFEAT  OF  THE  SPANISH  ArMA- 

DA,  A.D.  1588. 

A.D.  1452.  Final  expulsion  of  the  English  from  France. 

1453.  Confttantinople  taken,  and  the  Roman  empire  of  the 
Jila^t  destroyed  by  the  Turkish  Sultan  Mohammed  II. 

1455.  Commoncement  of  the  civil  wars  in  England  between 
tlie  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster. 

1479.  Union  of  the  Christian  kingdoms  of  Spain  under  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella. 

1492.  Capture  of  Grenada  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and 
end  of  the  Moorish  dominion  in  Spain. 

1492.   Columbus  discovers  the  New  World. 

1494.   Charles  VIII.  of  France  invades  Italy. 

1497.  Expedition  of  Vasco  di  Gama  to  the  East  Indies  round 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

1503.  Naples  conquered  from  the  French  by  the  great  Span- 
ish general,  Gousalvo  of  Cordova. 

1508.  League  of  Cambray  by  the  pope,  the  emperor,  and  the 
King  of  France  against  Venice. 

1509.  Albuquerque  establishes  the  empire  of  the  Portuguese 
in  the  East  Indies. 

1516.  Death  of  Ferdinand  of  Spain;  he  is  succeeded  by  his 
grandson  Charles,  afterward  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 

1517.  Dispute  between  Luther  and  Tetzel  respecting  the  saie 
of  indulgences,  which  leads  to  the  Reformation. 

1519.  Charles  V.  is  elected  Emperor  of  Germany. 

1520     Cortez  conquers  Mexico. 

1525.  Francis  First  of  Spain  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by 
the  imperial  army  at  Pavia. 

1529.  League  of  Smalcald  formed  by  the  Protestant  princei 
of  Germany. 

1533.  Henry  VIII.  renounces  the  papal  supremacy. 

1533.  Pizarro  conquers  Peru. 

1556.  Abdication  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  Philip  II.  be- 
romes  King  of  Spain,  an  i  Ferdinand  I.  Emperor  of  Germany. 

1557.  Ehzabeth  becomes  dueen  of  England. 

1557.  The  Spaniards  t'efeat  the  French  at  the  battle  of  8l 
Q,uentin. 


S38  SYNOPSIS     OF     EVENTS,     ETC. 

1571.  Don  John  of  Austria,  at  the  head  of  the  Spanish  fleet, 
aided  by  the  Venetian  and  the  papal  squadrons,  defeats  the  Turks 
at  Lepanto. 

1572.  Massacre  of  the  Protestants  in  France  on  St.  BarthoIo< 
mew's  day. 

1579,  The  Netherlands  revolt  against  Spain. 
1580    Philip  II   conquers  Portugal. 


DCFEAT    OF    THE    SPANISH    ARMADA.  239 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  DEFEAT  OF   THE   SPANISH  ARMADA,  A.D    1588. 

In  that  memorable  year,  when  the  dark  cloud  gathered  round  our  coasta, 
^heii  Europe  stood  by  in  fearful  suspense  to  behold  what  should  be  th6 
result  of  that  great  cast  in  the  game  of  humin  politics,  what  the  craft  of 
Home,  the  power  of  Philip,  the  genius  of  Farnese  could  achieve  against 
the  island-queen,  with  her  Drakes  and  Cecils — in  that  agony  of  the  Prot- 
estant faith  and  English  name. — Hallam,  Const.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p.  220. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  19th  of  July,  A.D.  1588,  a  group  of 
English  captains  was  collected  at  the  Bowling  Green  on  the  Hoo 
at  Plymouth,  whose  equals  have  never  before  or  since  been  brought 
together,  even  at  that  favorite  mustering  place  of  the  heroes  of 
the  British  navy.  There  was  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  first  En- 
glish circumnavigator  of  the  globe,  the  terror  of  every  Spanish 
coast  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New  ;  there  was  Sir  John  Haw- 
kins, the  rough  veteran  of  many  a  daring  voyage  on  the  African 
and  American  seas,  and  of  many  a  desperate  battle  ;  there  was  Sir 
Martin  Frobisher,  one  of  the  earliest  explorers  of  the  Arctic  seas, 
in  search  of  that  Northwest  Passage  which  is  still  the  darling  ob- 
ject of  England's  boldest  mariners.  There  was  the  high  admiral 
of  England,  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  prodigal  of  all  things  in 
his  country's  cause,  and  who  had  recently  had  the  noble  daring  to 
refuse  to  dismantle  part  of  the  fleet,  though  the  queen  had  sent 
him  orders  to  do  so,  in  consequence  of  an  exaggerated  report  that 
the  enemy  had  been  driven  back  and  shattered  by  a  storm.  Lord 
Howard  (whom  contemporary  writers  describe  as  being  of  a  wise 
and  noble  courage,  skillful  in  sea  matters,  wary  and  provident, 
and  of  great  esteem  among  the  sailors)  resolved  to  risk  his  sov 
ereign's  anger,  and  to  keep  the  ships  afloat  at  his  own  charge, 
rather  than  that  England  should  run  the  peril  of  losing  thei* 
protection. 

Another  of  our  Elizabethan  sea-kings.  Sir  Walter  Raleigt  wag 
at  that  time  commissioned  to  raise  and  equip  the  land-forces  of 
Cornwall  ;  but  we  may  well  believe  that  he  must  have  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  of  consulting  with  the  lord  admiral 


240  DiSFEAT     OS* 

and  the  other  high  officers,  which  was  offered  by  the  EnghBh 
fleet  putting  into  Plymouth  ;  and  we  may  look  on  Raleigh  ai 
one  of  the  group  that  was  assemVled  at  the  Bowling  Green  on 
the  Hoe.  Many  other  brave  men  and  skillful  mariners,  besides 
the  chiefs  whose  names  have  been  mentioned,  were  there,  enjoy- 
ing, with  true  sailor-like  merriment,  their  temporary  relaxation 
from  duty  In  the  harbor  lay  the  English  fleet  with  which  thpy 
had  just  returned  from  a  cruise  to  Corunrid  in  search  of  mforma- 
lion  respecting  the  real  condition  and  rriovements  of  the  hoptile 
Armada.  Lord  Howard  had  ascertain^-d  that  our  enemies,  though 
tempest-tossed,  were  still  formidably  strong  ;  and  fearing  that 
Dart  of  their  fleet  might  make  foi  England  in  his  absence,  he  had 
hurried  back  to  the  Devonshire  coast.  He  resumed  his  station 
at  Plymouth,  and  waited  there  for  certain  tidings  of  the  Span- 
iai'd's  approach. 

A  match  at  bowls  was  being  played,  in  which  Drake  and  other 
high  officers  of  the  fleet  were  engaged,  when  a  small  armed  ves 
gel  was  seen  runnmg  before  the  wind  into  Plymouth  harbor  with 
all  sails  set.  Her  commander  landed  in  haste,  and  eagerly  sought 
the  place  where  the  English  lord  admiral  and  his  captains  were 
standing.  His  name  was  Fleming ;  he  was  the  master  of  a  Scotch 
privateer  ;  and  he  told  the  English  officers  that  he  had  that 
morning  seen  the  Spanish  Armada  off'  the  Cornish  coast.  At 
this  exciting  information  the  captains  began  to  hurry  down  to  the 
water,  and  there  was  a  shouting  for  the  ships'  boats  ;  but  Drake 
coolly  checked  his  comrades,  and  insisted  that  the  match  should  bi'' 
played  out.  He  said  that  there  was  plenty  of  time  both  to  win  the 
game  and  beat  the  Spaniards.  The  best  and  bravest  match  that 
ever  was  scored  was  resumed  accordingly.  Drake  and  his  friends 
aimed  their  last  bowls  with  the  same  steady,  calculating  cool- 
ness with  which  they  were  about  to  point  their  guns.  The  win- 
ning cast  was  made  ;  and  then  they  went  on  board  and  prepared 
for  action  with  their  hearts  as  light  and  their  nerves  as  firm  as 
they  had  been  on  the  Hoe  Bowling  Green. 

Meanwhile  tlie  messengers  and  signals  had  been  dispatched 
fafet  and  far  through  England,  to  warn  each  town  and  village 
that  the  enemy  had  come  at  last.  In  every  sea-port  there  was 
instant  making  ready  by  land  and  by  sea  ;  in  every  shire  and 
every  city  there  was  instant  mustering  of  horse  and  man.*     But 

♦  In  Macaulay's  Ball?d  on  the  Spanish  Armada,  the  transmission  ««f 


THE     SPANISH     ARMADA  241 

England's  hest  defense  then,  as  ever,  was  in  her  fleet  ;  and  after 
warping  laboriously  out  of  Plymouth  harbor  against  the  wind, 
th*^  lord  admiral  stood  westward  under  easy  sail,  keeping  an  anx 
ious  look-out  for  the  Armada,  the  approach  of  which  was  soon 
auncunced  by  Cornisl  '^sher-boats  and  signals  from  the  Cornish 
rlills. 

The  England  of  our  own  days  is  so  strong,  and  the  Spain  of 
our  own  days  is  so  feeble,  that  it  is  not  easy,  without  some  re- 
flection and  care,  to  comprehend  the  full  extent  of  the  peril 
which  England  then  ran  from  the  power  and  the  ambition  of 
Spain,  or  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  that  crisis  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  We  had  then  no  Indian  or  colonial  empire, 
save  the  feeble  germs  of  our  North  American  settlements,  which 
Raleigh  and  Gilbert  had  recently  planted.  Scotland  was  a  sep- 
arate kingdom  ;  and  Ireland  was  then  even  a  greater  source  of 
weakness  and  a  worse  nest  of  rebellion  than  she  has  been  in 
after  times.  Q,ueen  Elizabeth  had  found  at  her  accession  an  en- 
cumbered revenue,  a  divided  people,  and  an  unsuccessful  foreign 
war,  in  which  the  last  remnant  of  our  possessions  in  France  had 
been  lost ;  she  had  also  a  formidable  pretender  to  her  crown, 
whose  interests  were  favored  by  all  the  Roman  Catholic  pow- 
ers ;  and  even  some  of  her  subjects  w^ere  warped  by  religious 
bigotry  to  deny  her  title,  and  to  look  on  her  as  a  heretical  usurp- 
er. It  is  true  that  during  the  years  of  her  reign  which  had 
passed  away  before  the  attempted  invasion  of  1588,  she  had  re- 
vived the  commercial  prosperity,  the  national  spirit,  and  the  na- 
tional loyalty  of  England.  But  her  resources  to  cope  with  the 
colossal  power  of  Philip  II.  still  seemed  most  scanty  ;  and  she 
had  not  a  single  foreign  ally,  except  the  Dutch,  who  were  them- 
selves struggling  hard,  and,  as  it  seemed,  hopelessly,  to  maintain 
their  revolt  against  Spain. 

On  the  other  hand,  Philip  II.  was  absolute  master  of  an  em- 
pire so  superior  to  the  other  states  of  the  world  in  extent,  in  re 
sources,  and  especially  in  military  and  naval  forces,  as  to  make 
the  project  of  enlarging  that  empire  into  a  universal  monarchy 

the  tidings  of  the  Armada's  approach,  and  X\\e.  arming  of  the  English  na- 
tion, are  ningnificentiy  descrihcHl.  Tiie  progress  of  the  fire-signals  is  de- 
picted in  lines  which  are  worliiy  of  coinparison  witii  the  renowned  pas- 
sage in  the  Agauieninon,  which  describes  the  transmission  of  the  beao.in- 
Ight  announcing  the  fall  of  Troy  from  Mount  Ida  to  Argos. 

L 


242  DEFEAT     OF 

seem  a  perfectly  feasible  scheme  ;  and  Philip  had  both  the  am 
bition  to  form  that  project,  and  the  resolution  to  ilcvote  all  hii 
energies  and  all  his  means  to  its  realization.  Since  the  down- 
fall of  the  Roman  empire  no  such  preponderating  power  had  ex- 
isted in  the  world.  During  the  mediaeval  centuries  the  chief 
European  kingdoms  were  sloMdy  molding  themselves  o.it  of  the 
feudal  chaos  ;  and  though  the  wars  with  each  other  were  numer- 
ous and  desperate,  and  several  of  their  respective  kings  figured 
for  a  time  as  mighty  conquerors,  none  of  them  in  those  times  ac 
quired  the  consistency  and  perfect  organization  which  are.  requi 
site  for  a  long-sustained  cai'eer  of  aggrandizement.  After  the 
consolidation  of  the  great  kingdoms,  they  for  some  time  kept  each 
other  in  mutual  check.  During  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  balancing  system  was  successfully  practiced  by  Eu- 
ropean statesmen.  But  when  Philip  II.  reigned,  France  had  be- 
come so  miserably  weak  through  her  civil  wars,  that  he  had 
nothing  to  dread  from  the  rival  state  which  had  so  long  curbed 
his  father,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  In  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Poland  he  had  either  zealous  friends  and  dependents,  or  weak 
and  divided  enemies.  Against  the  Turks  he  had  gained  great 
and  glorious  successes  ;  and  he  might  look  round  the  continent 
of  Europe  without  discerning  a  single  antagonist  of  whom  ho 
could  stand  in  awe.  Spain,  when  he  acceded  to  the  throne,  was 
at  the  zenith  of  her  poM'er.  The  hardihood  and  spirit  which  the 
Aragonese,  the  Castilians,  and  the  other  nations  of  the  peninsula 
had  acquired  during  centuries  of  free  institutions  and  successful 
war  against  the  Moors,  had  not  yet  become  obliterated.  Charles 
V.  had,  indeed,  destroyed  the  liberties  of  Spain  ;  but  that  had 
been  done  too  recently  for  its  full  evil  to  be  felt  in  Philip's  time. 
A  people  can  not  be  debased  in  a  single  generation ;  and  the 
Spaniards  under  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.  proved  the  truth  of 
the  remark,  that  no  nation  is  ever  so  formidable  to  its  neighbors 
for  a  time,  as  a  nation  which,  after  being  trained  up  in  self-gov- 
ernment, passes  suddenly  under  a  despotic  ruler.  The  energy 
of  democratic  institutions  survives  for  a  few  generations,  and  t( 
it  ars  superadded  the  decision  and  certainty  which  are  the  at 
tributes  nf  government  when  all  its  powers  are  directed  by  a 
Biiigle  mind.  It  is  true  that  this  preternatural  vigor  is  short 
lived  :  national  corruption  and  debasement  gradually  follow  the 
loss  of  the  national  liberties  ;    but  there  is  an  intorvaJ  before 


THE     SPANISH     ARMADA.  243 

their  workings  are  felt,  and  in  that  interval  the  most  ambitious 
schemes  of  i'oreign  conquest  are  often  successfully  undertaken. 

I'hilip  had  also  the  advantage  of  finding"  hiniself  at  the  head 
of  a  large  standing  army  in  a  perfect  slate  of  dii3ipline  and  equip- 
ment, in  an  age  when,  except  some  few  insignificant  corps,  stand- 
ing armies  were  unknown  in  Christendom.  The  renown  of  the 
Spanish  troops  was  justly  high,  and  the  infantry  in  particular 
was  considered  the  best  in  the  world.  His  fleet,  also,  was  fat 
more  numerous,  and  better  appointed  than  that  of  any  other  Eu- 
ropean power  ;  and  both  his  soldiers  and  his  sailors  had  the  con- 
fidence in  themselves  and  their  commanders  which  a  long  career 
of  successful  warfare  alone  can  create. 

Besides  the  Spanish  croAvn,  Philip  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  and  Sicily,  the  duchy  of  Milan,  Franche-Compte,  and  the 
Netherlands.  In  Africa  he  possessed  Tunis,  Oran,  the  Cape 
Verde,  and  the  Canary  Islands  ;  and  in  Asia,  the  Philippine  and 
Suuda  Islands,  and  a  part  of  the  Moluccas.  Beyond  the  Allanlic 
he  was  lord  of  the  most  splendid  portions  of  the  New  World, 
which  Columbus  found  "  for  Castile  and  Leon."  The  empires 
of  Peru  and  Mexico,  New  Spain,  and  Chili,  with  their  abundant 
mines  of  the  precious  metals,  Hispaniola  and  Cuba,  and  many 
other  of  the  American  islands,  Avere  provinces  of  the  sovereign  of 
Spain. 

Philip  had,  indeed,  experienced  the  mortification  of  seeing  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  revolt  against  his  authority,  nor 
could  he  succeed  in  bringing  back  beneath  the  Spanish  sceptre 
all  the  possessions  which  his  father  had  bequeathed  to  him.  But 
he  had  reconquered  a  large  number  of  the  towns  and  districts 
that  originally  took  up  arms  against  him.  Belgium  was  brought 
more  thoroughly  into  iinpHcit  obedience  tc  Spain  than  she  had 
I  een  before  her  insurrection,  and  it  was  only  Holland  and  the  six 
other  northern  stales  that  slill  held  out  against  his  arras.  TIio 
roatest  had  also  formed  a  compact  and  veteran  army  on  Philip's 
side,  which,  under  his  great  general,  the  Prince  of  Parma,  had 
been  trained  to  act  together  under  all  difficulties  and  all  vicit>:i- 
tudcs  of  warfare,  and  on  whose  steadines.s  and  loyalty  perfect  re 
iianco  might  be  placed  throughout  any  enlerpriec,  however  dilfi- 
cnlt  and  tedious.  Alexander  Farnese,  prince  of  Parma,  captain 
general  of  the  Spanish  armies,  and  governor  of  the  Spanish  pos- 
spssions  in  th"  NctherUnds,  was  beyond  all  comparison  the  great 


244  DEFEAT     OF 

est  military  gniius  of  his  age.  He  was  also  highly  distiiigdished 
for  political  wisdom  and  sagacity,  and  for  his  great  administra- 
tive talents.  He  was  idolized  by  his  troops,  whose  affections  he 
knew  how  to  win  without  relaxing  their  discipline  or  diminishing 
his  o^wTi  authority.  Pre-eminently  cool  and  circumspect  in  hiu 
plans,  but  swift  and  energetic  when  the  moment  arrived  for  strik- 
ing a  decisive  blow,  neglecting  no  risk  that  caution  could  provide 
against,  conciliating  even  the  populations  of  the  districts  which 
he  attacked  by  his  scrupulous  good  faith,  his  moderation,  and  his 
address,  Farnese  was  one  of  the  most  formidable  generals  that 
ever  could  be  placed  at  the  head  of  an  army  designed  not  only 
tc  win  battles,  but  to  efi^ect  conquests.  Happy  it  is  for  England 
and  the  world  that  this  island  was  saved  from  becoming  an  arena 
for  the  exhibition  of  his  powers. 

Whatever  diminution  the  Spanish  empire  might  have  sustain- 
ed in  the  Netherlands  seemed  to  be  more  than  compensated  by 
the  acquisition  of  Portugal,  which  Philip  had  completely  conquer- 
ed in  1580.  Not  only  that  ancient  kingdom  itself,  but  all  the 
fruits  of  the  maritime  enterprises  of  the  Portuguese,  had  fallen 
into  Philip's  hands.  All  the  Portuguese  colonies  in  America, 
Africa,  and  the  East  Indies  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  tht 
King  of  Spain,  who  thus  not  only  united  the  whole  Iberian  pen 
insula  under  his  single  sceptre,  but  had  acquired  a  transmarine 
empire  little  inferior  in  wealth  and  extent  to  that  which  he  had 
inherited  at  his  accession.  The  splendid  victory  which  his  fleet, 
in  conjunction  with  the  papal  and  Venetian  galleys,  had  gained 
at  Lepanto  over  the  Turks,  had  deservedly  exalted  the  fame  of 
the  Spanish  marine  throughout  Christendom  ;  and  when  Philip 
had  reigned  thirty-five  years,  the  vigor  of  his  empire  seemed  un 
broken,  and  the  glory  of  the  Spanish  arms  had  increased,  and 
was  increasing  throughout  the  world. 

One  nation  only  had  been  his  active,  his  persevering,  and  hii 
successful  foe.  England  had  encouraged  his  revolted  subjects  in 
Flanders  against  him,  and  given  them  the  aid  in  men  and  u)onoy, 
withoiit  which  they  must  soon  have  been  humbled  in  the  dust 
English  ships  had  plundered  his  colonies  ;  had  defied  his  suprem- 
acy in  the  New  World  as  well  as  the  Old  ;  they  had  inflicted 
gnominious  defeats  on  his  squadrons  ;  they  had  captured  his 
cities,  and  burned  his  arsenals  on  the  very  coasts  of  Spain.  The 
Knglish  had  made  Philip  himself  the  object  of  personal  insult 


THE     SPANISH     ARMADA.  24d 

He  was  held  up  to  ridicule  in  their  stage-plays  and  masks,  and 
these  scofis  at  the  man  had  (as  is  not  unusual  in  such  cases)  ex 
cited  the  anger  of  the  absolute  king  even  more  vehemently  than 
the  injuries  inflicted  on  his  power.*  Personal  as  well  as  polit- 
ical revenge  urged  him  to  attack  England.  Were  she  once  sub- 
dued, the  Dutch  must  submit ;  France  could  not  cope  with  him, 
the  empire  would  not  oppose  him  ;  and  universal  dominion  seem- 
ed sure  to  be  the  result  of  the  conquest  of  that  malignant  island. 
There  was  yet  another  and  a  stronger  feeling  which  armed 
K  ng  Philip  against  England.  He  was  one  of  the  sincerest  and 
cne  of  the  sternest  bigots  of  his  age.  He  looked  on  himself,  and 
was  looked  on  by  others,  as  the  appointed  champion  to  extirpate 
heresy  and  re-establish  the  papal  power  throughout  Europe.  A 
powerful  reaction  against  Protestantism  had  taken  place  since  the 
commencement  of  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
he  looked  on  himself  as  destined  to  complete  it.  The  Reformed 
doctrines  had  been  thoroughly  rooted  out  from  Italy  and  Spain. 
Belgium,  which  had  previously  been  half  Protestant,  had  been 
reconquered  both  in  allegiance  and  creed  by  Philip,  and  had  be- 
come one  of  the  most  Catholic  countries  in  the  world.  Half 
Germany  had  been  won  back  to  the  old  faith.  In  Savoy,  in 
Switzerland,  and  many  other  countries,  the  progress  of  the  coun- 
ter-Reformation had  been  rapid  and  decisive.  The  Catholic 
league  seemed  victorious  in  France.  The  papal  court  itself  had 
shaken  off  the  supineness  of  recent  centuries,  and,  at  the  head 
of  the  Jesuits  and  the  other  new  ecclesiastical  orders,  was  dis- 
playing a  vigor  and  a  boldness  worthy  )f  the  days  of  Hildebrand, 
or  Innocent  III. 

Throughout  Continental  Europe,  the  Protestants,  discomfited 
and  dismayed,  looked  to  England  as  their  protector  and  refuge. 
England  was  the  acknowledged  central  point  of  Protestant  pow- 
er and  policy  ;  and  to  conquer  England  was  to  stab  Protestant- 
ism to  the  very  heart.  Sixtus  V.,  the  then  reigning  pope,  earn- 
estly exhorted  Philip  to  this  enterprise.  And  when  the  tidings 
reached  Italy  and  Spain  that  the  Protestant  Q.ueen  of  England 
had  put  to  death  her  Catholic  prisoner,  Mary  Q.:ieen  of  Scots, 
tlie  fury  of  the  Vatican  and  Escurial  knew  no  bounds.  Eliza 
beth  was  denounced  as  the  murderous  heretic  whose  de;5tructio« 
«'us  an  instant  duty.  A  formal  treaty  was  concluded  (in  J'luf 
•  Spe  Ranke's  "  Hist,  Popes,"  vol.  ii  ,  p.  170. 


246  DEFEAT    or 

1587),  by  which  the  pope  bound  nimself  to  ^^cntribute  a  miUion 
Df  scudi  to  the  expenses  of  the  war  ;  the  money  to  be  paid  as 
soon  as  the  king  had  actual  possession  of  an  English  port.  Phil- 
ip, on  his  part,  strained  the  resources  of  his  vast  empire  t^  the 
utmost.  The  French  Catholic  chiefs  eagerly  co-operated  with 
him  In  the  sea-ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  along  almost 
the  whole  coast  from  Gibraltar  to  Jutland,  the  preparations  for 
lbs  great  armament  were  urged  forward  with  all  the  eaniestnes 
of  religious  zeal  as  well  as  of  angry  ambition.  "  Thus,"  says 
the  German  historian  of  tl  e  popes,=^  "  thus  did  the  united  pow- 
ers of  Italy  and  Spain,  from  which  such  mighty  influences  had 
gone  forth  over  the  whole  world,  now  rouse  themselves  for  an 
attack  upon  England  I  The  king  had  already  compiled,  from 
the  archives  of  Simancas,  a  statement  of  the  claims  which  he 
had  to  the  throne  of  that  country  on  the  extinction  of  the  fltuart 
line  ;  the  most  brilliant  prospects,  especially  that  of  a  universal 
dominion  of  the  seas,  were  associated  in  his  mind  with  this  en- 
terprise. Every  thing  seemed  to  conspire  to  such  an  end  ;  the 
predominancy  of  Catholicism  in  Germany,  the  renewed  attack 
upon  the  Huguenots  in  France,  the  attempt  upon  Geneva,  and 
the  enterprise  against  England.  At  the  same  moment,  a  thor- 
oughly Catholic  prince,  Sigismund  III.,  ascended  the  tluone  of 
Poland,  with  the  prospect  also  of  future  succession  to  the  throne 
of  Sweden.  But  whenever  any  principle  or  power,  be  it  what  it 
may,  aims  at  unlimited  supremacy  in  Europe,  some  vigorous  re- 
eistance  to  it,  having  its  origin  in  the  deepest  springs  of  human 
nature,  invariably  arises.  Philip  II.  had  to  encounter  newly, 
awakened  powers,  braced  by  the  vigor  of  youth,  and  elevated  by 
a  sense  of  their  future  destiny.  The  intrepid  corsairs,  who  had 
rendered  every  sea  insecure,  now  clustered  round  the  coasts  of 
their  native  island.  The  Protestants  in  a  body — even  the  Puri- 
tans, although  they  had  been  subjected  to  as  severe  oppres.sions 
ag  the  Catholics — rallied  round  their  queen,  who  now  gave  ad- 
mirable proof  of  her  jaj^ij^^jj^ii^courage,  and  her  princely  talent 
of  winning  the  aflections,  and  leading  the  minds,  and  preserving 
the  .'O'ceiancc  of  men." 

Ranke  should  have  added  that  the  English  Catholics  at  tluB 
ciisis  proved  themselves  as  loyal  to  their  queen  and  true  to  their 
country  as  were  the  most  vehement  auti-Cathohc  zealots  it   the 
♦  Ranke,  vol.  ii.,  p.  ITS 


THE     S1'A^ISH     ARMADA  247 

island.  Sonic  few  traitors  there  were  ;  but  as  a  body,  thft  En 
glisluneii  who  held  the  ancient  faith  stood  the  trial  of  their  pat- 
riotism nobl) .  The  lord  admiral  himself  was  a  Catholic,  and 
(to  adopt  the  words  of  Hallam)  "  then  it  Avas  that  the  Catholics 
in  every  county  repaired  to  the  standard  of  the  lord  lieutenant, 
imploring  that  they  might  not  be  suspected  of  bartering  the 
national  independence  for  their  religion  itself"  The  Spaniard 
found  no  partisans  in  the  country  which  he  assailed,  nor  did  En- 
gland, self-wounded, 

"  Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  her  enemy." 

For  upward  of  a  year  the  Spanish  preparations  had  been  act- 
ively and  unremittingly  urged  lorward.  Negotiations  were,  dur- 
ing this  time,  carried  on  at  Ostend,  in  which  various  pretexts 
were  assigned  by  the  Spanish  commissioners  for  the  gathering 
together  of  such  huge  masses  of  shipping,  and  such  equipments 
of  troops  in  all  the  sea-ports  which  their  master  ruled  ;  but  Phihp 
himself  took  little  care  to  disguise  his  intentions  ;  nor  could  Eliz- 
abeth and  her  able  ministers  doubt  but  that  this  island  was  the 
real  object  of  the  Spanish  armaraent.  The  peril  that  was  wisely 
foreseen  was  resolutely  provided  for.  Circular  letters  from  the 
queen  were  sent  round  to  the  lord  lieutenants  of  the  several  coun- 
ties, requiring  them  "  to  call  together  the  best  sort  of  gentlemen 
under  their  lif'ntenan?y,  and  to  declare  unto  them  these  great 
preparations  and  arrogant  threatenings,  now  burst  forth  in  action 
upon  the  seas,  wherein  every  man's  particular  state,  in  the  high- 
est degree,  could  be  touched  in  respect  of  country,  liberty,  wives, 
children,  lands,  lives,  and  (which  was  specially  to  be  regaried) 
the  profession  of  the  true  and  sincere  religion  of  Christ.  And  tc 
lay  before  them  the  infinite  and  unspeakable  miseries  that  would 
fall  out  upon  any  such  change,  which  miseries  were  evidently 
seen  by  the  fruits  of  that  hard  and  cruel  government  holden  m 
countries  not  far  distant.  We  do  look,"  said  the  queen,  "  thai 
the  most  part  of  them  should  have,  upon  this  instant  extraordi 
naiv  occasion,  a  larger  proportion  of  furniture,  both  for  hor^cineu 
and  footmen,  but  especially  horsemen,  than  hath  been  cei tilled  ■ 
theicby  to  be  in  their  best  strength  against  any  attempt,  or  to 
be  employed  about  our  own  person,  or  othei-wise.  Hereunto  ae 
we  doubt  not  but  by  your  good  endeavors  they  will  be  the  rather 
tonformable  so  also  we  assure  ourselves  that  Alnrighty  God  will 


24t  D  i:  F  E  A  T     OP" 

BO  bless  these  their  lOyal  hearts  borne  toward  us,  their  loving  soy 
ereign,  and  their  natural  country,  that  all  the  attempts  of  any 
enemy  whatsoever  shall  be  made  void  and  frustrate,  to  their  con- 
fusion, your  comfort,  and  to  God's  high  glory."* 

Letters  of  a  similar  kind  were  also  sent  by  the  council  to  each 
of  the  nobility,  and  to  the  great  cities.  The  primate  called  on 
the  clergy  for  their  contributions  ;  and  by  every  class  of  the  com- 
m  unity  the  appeal  was  responded  to  with  liberal  zeal,  that  offer- 
ed more  even  than  the  queen  required.  The  boasting  threats  of 
the  Spaniards  had  roused  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  and  the  whole 
people  "were  thoroughly  irritated  to  stir  up  their  Avhole  forces 
for  their  defense  against  such  prognosticated  conquests  ;  so  that, 
in  a  very  short  time,  all  her  whole  realm,  and  every  corner,  were 
furnished  with  armed  men,  on  horseback  and  on  foot ;  and  those 
continually  trained,  exercised,  and  put  into  bands,  in  warlike  man- 
ner, as  in  no  age  ever  was  before  in  this  realm.  There  was  no 
sparing  of  money  to  provide  horse,  armor,  weapons,  powder,  and 
all  necessaries  ;  no,  nor  want  of  provision  of  pioneers,  carriages, 
and  victuals,  in  every  county  of  the  realm,  without  exception,  to 
attejid  upon  the  armies.  And  to  this  general  furniture  every 
man  voluntarily  offered,  very  many  their  services  personally  with- 
out wages,  others  money  for  armor  and  weapons,  and  to  wage 
soldiers  :  a  matter  strange,  and  never  the  like  heard  of  in  this 
realm  or  elsewhere.  And  this  general  reason  moved  all  men  to 
large  contributions,  that  when  a  conquest  was  to  be  withstood 
wherein  all  should  be  lost,  it  was  no  time  to  spare  a  portion."! 

Our  lion-hearted  queen  showed  herself  worthy  of  such  a  peo- 
ple. A  camp  was  formed  at  Tilbury  ;  and  there  Elizabeth  rode 
through  the  ranks,  encouraging  her  captains  and  her  soldiers  by 
her  presence  and  her  words.  One  of  the  speeches  which  she  ad 
dressed  to  them  during  this  crisis  has  been  preserved  ;  and, 
though  often  quoted,  it  must  not  be  omitted  here. 

''My  loving  people,"  she  said,  "  we  have  been  persuaded  by 
t/ome  that  are  careful  of  our  safety  to  take  heed  how  we  commit 
ourselves  to  armed  multitudes,  for  fear  of  treachery  ;  but  I  assure 
you  I  do  not  desire  to  live  to  distrust  my  faithful  and  loi  ing  peo- 
plr      Let  tyrants  fear  I  I  have  always  so  behaved  rnyself,  that, 

♦  Strypo,  cited  in  Soutliey'r  "Naval  History." 

•t  Copj  of  contemporary  letter  in  the  Harleian  Collection,  quoted  by 
Southey. 


T  H  E     b  P  A  .N  1  S  il     A  K  M  A  D  iS..  24  i 

under  God,  I  liave  placed  my  cliicrest  strength  and  safeguard  in 
the  loyal  heart'-  ami  good  will  of  my  subjects  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
am  <'ome  among  you,  as  you  see,  at  this  time,  not  for  my  recrea- 
tion and  disport,  but  being  resolved,  in  the  midst  and  heat  of  the 
baltle,  to  live  or  die  among  you  all,  to  lay  down  for  iny  God,  for 
my  kingdom,  and  for  my  people,  my  honor  and  my  blood  even  in 
the  dust.  ]  know  I  have  the  body  but  of  a  weak  and  feeble 
t\-oman,  but  I  have  the  heart  and  stomach  of  a  king,  and  of  a 
King  of  Englan  "  too,  and  think  it  foul  scorn  that  Parma,  ox 
Spain,  or  any  prir.ce  of  Europe  should  dare  to  invade  the  borders 
of  my  realm,  to  which  rather  than  any  dishonor  shall  grow  by 
me,  I  myself  will  take  up  arms,  I  myself  will  be  your  general, 
judge,  and  rewarder  of  every  one  of  your  virtues  in  the  field.  I 
know  already,  for  your  forwardness,  you  have  desei-ved  rewards 
and  crowns  ;  and  we  do  assure  you,  on  the  word  of  a  prince,  they 
shall  be  duly  paid  you.  In  the  mean  time,  my  lieutenant  gen- 
eral shall  be  in  my  stead,  than  whom  never  prince  commanded 
a  more  noble  or  worthy  subject,  not  doubting  but  by  your  obedi- 
ence to  my  general,  by  your  concord  in  the  camp,  and  your  valor 
in  the  field,  we  shall  shortly  have  a  famous  victory  over  those 
•enemies  of  my  God,  of  my  kingdom,  and  of  my  people." 

Some  of  Elizabeth's  advisers  recommended  that  the  whole 
care  and  resources  of  the  government  should  be  devoted  to  the* 
equipment  of  the  armies,  and  that  the  enemy,  when  he  attempt- 
ed to  land,  should  be  welcomed  with  a  battle  on  the  shore.  But 
the  wiser  counsels  of  Raleigh  and  others  pi'evailed,  who  urged 
the  importance  of  fitting  out  a  fleet  that  should  encounter  the 
Spaniards  at  sea,  and,  if  possible,  prevent  them  from  approach- 
ing the  land  at  all.  In  Raleigh's  great  work  on  the  "  History 
of  the  World,"  he  takes  occasion,  when  discussing  some  of  the 
events  of  the  first  Punic  war,  to  give  his  reasonings  on  the  prop- 
er policy  of  England  when  menaced  with  invasion.  Without 
djubt,  we  have  there  the  substance  of  the  advice  which  he  gave 
to  Elizabeth's  council ;  and  the  remarks  of  such  a  man  on  such 
a  subject  have  a  general  and  enduring  interest,  beyond  the  im- 
Mediate  crisis  which  called  theia  forth.  Raleigh  says  :*  "Sure- 
ly I  hold  thai  the  b(>st  way  is  to  keep  our  enemies  from  trjid- 
mg  upon  our  ground  ;  wherein  if  we  fail,  then  must  wc  8e(;k  tc 
make  him  wish  that  he  had  stayed  at  his  own  home.  In  such 
•  "  Hislorie  of  the  WorM,"  p.  799-«ai. 
L  2 


liiiO  DEFEAT     OF 

t»  case,  if  it  should  happen,  our  judgn^euts  are  to  weigh  ir.an} 
particular  ciTcumstances,  that  belongs  not  unto  t/iis  discourse. 
But  making  the  question  general,  the  positive,  Whether  Eu* 
gland,  toithout  the  help  of  her  Jleet,  be  able  to  debar  ..«  etuniy 
frof/i  landing,  I  hold  that  it  is  unable  so  to  do,  and  therefore  1 
think  it  most  dangerous  to  make  the  adventure ;  for  the  encour- 
agenvent  of  a  first  victory  to  an  enem)^  and  the  discouragement 
of  being  beaten  to  the  invaded,  may  draw  after  it  a  most  peril- 
ous consaquence. 

'  Great  difference  I  know  there  is,  and  a  diverse  considera 
lion  to  be  had,  between  such  a  country  as  France  is,  strength- 
ened  with  many  fortified  places,  and  this  of  ours,  where  our  ram 
parts  are  but  the  bodies  of  men.  But  I  say  that  an  army  to  be 
transported  over  sea,  and  to  be  landed  again  in  an  enemy's  coun- 
try, and  the  place  left  to  the  choice  of  the  invader,  can  not  be 
resisted  on  the  coast  of  England  without  a  fleet  to  impeach  it  ; 
no,  nor  on  the  coast  of  France,  or  any  other  country,  except  ev- 
ery creek,  port,  or  sandy  bay  had  a  powerful  army  in  each  of 
them  to  make  opposition.  For  let  the  supposition  be  granted 
that  Kent  is  able  to  furnish  twelve  thousand  foot,  and  that  those 
twelve  thousand  be  layed  in  the  three  best  landing-places  with- 
in that  country,  to  wit,  three  thousand  at  Margat,  three  thou- 
sand at  the  Nesse,  and  six  thousand  at  Foulkstone,  that  is,  some- 
what equally  distant  from  them  both,  as  also  that  two  of  these 
troops  (unless  some  other  order  be  thought  more  fit)  be  directed 
to  strengthen  the  third,  when  they  shall  see  the  enemy's  fleet  to 
head  toward  it  :  I  say,  that  notwithstanding  this  provision,  if 
the  enemy,  setting  sail  from  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  the  first  watch 
of  the  night,  and  towing  their  long  boats  at  their  sterns,  shall 
arrive  by  dawn  of  day  at  the  Nesse,  and  thrust  their  army  on 
shore  there,  it  will  be  hard  for  those  three  thousand  that  are  at 
Margat  (twenty-and-four  long  miles  from  thence)  to  come  time 
enough  1o  re-enlbrcc  their  fellows  at  the  Nesse.  Nay,  how  shall 
they  at  Foulkstone  be  able  to  do  it,  who  are  nearer  by  more 
than  half  the  way  ?  seeing  that  the  enemy,  at  his  first  arrival, 
will  either  make  his  entrance  by  force,  with  three  or  four  shot 
of  groat  artillei) ,  and  quickly  put  the  first  three  thousand  that 
arv  intrenched  at  the  Nesse  to  run.  or  else  give  them  so  nuich  to 
io  that  they  shall  b^  gl^id  to  sen  1  for  help  to  Foulkstone,  and 
perhaps  tc  Margat,  whereby  those  plajes  will  be  left  bare.    Now 


THE     SPANISH     ARMaDA.  25  > 

«t  U8  suppose  that  all  the  twelve  thousand  Kentish  soldiers  ar 
nve  at  the  Nesse  ere  the  enemy  can  be  ready  to  disembarque  hia 
army,  so  that  he  will  find  it  unsafe  to  land  in  the  far«  of  so 
many  prepared  to  withstand  him,  yet  must  wc  believe  tluit  he 
will  play  the  best  of"  his  own  game  (having  liberty  to  go  v.  hich 
way  he  list),  and  under  covert  of  the  night,  set  sail  toward  the 
east,  where  what  shall  hinder  him  to  take  ground  either  at  Mar- 
pat,  the  Downos,  or  elsewhere,  before  they  at  the  Nessc  can  bi; 
well  aware  of  his  departure  ?  Certainly  there  is  nothing  more 
easy  than  to  do  it.  Yea,  the  like  may  be  said  of  Weymouth,  I'ur- 
beck,  Poole,  and  of  all  landing-places  on  the  southwest ;  for  there 
is  no  man  ignorant  that  ships,  without  putting  themselves  out  of 
breath,  will  easily  outrun  the  souldiers  that  coast  them.  'Les 
armecs  ne  volent  foint  en  poste  ;'  '  Armies  neither  flye  noi  run 
post,'  saith  a  marshal  of  France.  And  I  know  it  to  be  true,  that 
a  fleet  of  ships  may  be  seen  at  sunset,  and  after  it  at  the  Lizard, 
yet  by  the  next  morning  they  may  recover  Portland,  M'hereas  an 
army  of  foot  shall  not  be  able  to  march  it  in  six  dayes.  Again, 
when  those  troops  lodged  on  the  sea-shores  shall  be  forced  to  run 
from  place  to  place  in  vain,  after  a  fleet  of  ships,  they  will  at 
length  sit  down  in  the  midway,  and  leave  all  at  advcntm-e.  But 
Bay  it  M'ere  otherwise,  that  the  invading  enemy  will  ofler  to  land 
in  some  such  place  where  there  shall  be  an  army  of  ours  ready 
to  receive  him ;  yet  it  can  not  be  doubted  but  that  when  the 
choice  of  all  our  trained  bands,  and  the  choice  of  our  command- 
ers and  captains,  shall  be  drawn  together  (as  they  were  at  Til- 
bury in  the  year  1588)  to  attend  the  person  of  the  prince,  and 
for  the  defense  of  the  city  of  London,  they  that  remain  to  guard 
the  coast  can  be  of  no  such  force  as  to  encounter  an  army  like 
into  that  wherewith  it  was  intended  that  the  Prince  of  Parma 
ehould  have  landed  in  England. 

"  For  end  of  this  digression,  I  hope  that  this  question  shall  never 
conie  to  trial :  his  majesty's  many  movable  forts  will  forbid  the 
experience.  And  although  the  English  will  no  less  disdain,  than 
any  nation  under  hcavtn  can  do,  to  be  beaten  upon  their  cAvn 
ground,  or  clsew^here,  by  a  forein  enemy,  yet  to  entertain  thoso 
that  shall  assail  us,  with  their  own  beef  in  their  bellie*  and  before 
thijy  eat  of  our  Kentish  capons,  I  take  it  to  be  the  wisest  way; 
to  do  which  his  majesty,  after  God,  will  employ  his  good  shipi 
on  the  sea,  and  not  trust  in  any  mtrenchmen*  upon  the  shore.  ' 


252  DEFEAT     OF 

The  introduction  of  steam  as  a  propelling  power  at  sea  ha« 
added  ten-fold  "weight  to  these  arguments  of  Raleigh.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  well-constructed  system  of  rail-ways,  es}.eciaJly  of 
coast-lines,  aided  by  the  operation  of  the  electric  telegraph,  would 
give  facilities  for  concentrating  a  defensive  army  to  oppose  an 
enemy  on  landing,  and  for  moving  troopo  from  place  to  place  in 
observation  of  the  movements  of  the  hostile  fleet;  such  as  would 
have  astonished  Sir  Walter,  even  more  than  the  sight  of  vessels 
passing  rapidly  to  and  fro  without  the  aid  of  wind  or  tide.  The 
observation  of  the  French  marshal,  whom  he  quotes,  is  now  no 
bmger  correct.  Armies  can  be  made  to  pass  from  place  to  place 
almost  with  the  speed  of  wings,  and  far  more  rapidly  than  any 
post-traveling  that  vias  known  in  the  Elizabethan  or  any  other 
age.  Still,  the  presence  of  a  sufficient  armed  force  at  the  right 
Epot,  at  the  right  time,  can  never  be  made  a  matter  of  certainty  ; 
and  even  after  the  changes  that  have  taken  place,  no  one  can 
doubt  but  that  the  policy  of  Raleigh  is  that  which  England  should 
ever  seek  to  follow  in  defensive  war.  At  the  time  of  the  Armada, 
that  policy  certainly  saved  the  country,  if  not  from  conquest,  at 
least  from  deploralle  calamities.  If  indeed  the  enemy  had  land- 
ed, we  may  be  sure  that  he  would  have  been  heroically  opposed. 
But  history  shows  us  so  many  examples  of  the  superiority  of  vet 
eran  troops  over  new  levies,  however  numerous  and  brave,  that, 
without  disparaging  our  countrymen's  soldierly  merits,  we  may 
well  be  thankful  that  no  trial  of  them  was  then  made  on  En- 
glish land.  Especially  must  we  feel  this  when  we  contrast  the 
high  military  genius  of  tlie  Prince  of  Parma,  who  would  have 
headed  the  Spaniards,  with  the  imbecility  of  the  Earl  of  Leices 
ter,  to  whom  the  deplorable  spirit  of  favoritism,  which  furm^^d  the 
great  blemish  on  Elizabetli's  characl-n",  had  then  committed  the 
chief  command  of  the  English  armies. 

The  ships  of  the  royal  navy  at  this  time  amounted  to  no  more 
than  thirty-six  ;  but  the  most  serviceable  merchant  vessel."  were 
collected  from  all  the  ports  of  the  country  ;  and  the  citizens  of 
Lfr.don,  Bristol,  and  the  other  great  seats  of  commerce  shoved 
4S  .iberal  a  zeal  in  equipping  and  manning  vessels,  as  the  nobili- 
ty and  gentry  displayed  in  muslering  forces  by  land.  The  sea- 
faring population  of  the  coast,  of  every  rank  and  station,  was  an 
imatcd  by  the  same  ready  spirit ;  and  the  whole  number  of  sea 
men  who  <>.ame  forward  to  man  the  English  fleet  was  17,4/5 


T  U  K     SPANISH     A  K  M  A  D  A .  252 

The  number  of  the  ships  that  were  collected  was  191  ,  and  th« 
total  anioujit  of  llieir  tonnage,  31,985.  There  was  one  ship  w 
the  tieet  (the  Triumph)  of  1100  tons,  one  of  1000,  one  of  900. 
two  of  800  each,  three  of  600,  five  of  500,  five  of  400,  six  of 
300,  six  of  250,  twenty  of  200,  and  the  residue  of  inferior  bur^ 
den.  Application  was  made  to  the  Dutch  for  assistance  ;  and, 
as  Slowe  expresses  it,  "  The  Hollanders  came  roundly  in,  with 
threescore  sail,  braA'e  ships  of  war,  fierce  and  full  of  spleen,  not 
ID  niuoh  lor  England's  aid,  as  in  just  occasion  for  their  own  de- 
fense :  these  men  torcseeing  the  greatness  of  the  danger  that 
might  ensue  if  the  Spaniards  should  chance  to  win  the  day  and 
get  the  masteiy  over  them  ;  in  due  regard  whereof,  their  manly 
courage  was  inferior  to  none." 

We  have  more  minute  information  of  the  number  and  equip- 
ment of  the  hostile  forces  than  we  have  of  our  own.  In  the  first 
volume  of  Hakluyt's  "Voyages,"  dedicated  to  Lord  Effingham, 
who  commanded  against  the  Armada,  there  is  given  (from  the 
contemporary  foreign  writer,  Meteran)  a  more  complete  and  de- 
tailed catalogue  than  has  perhaps  ever  appeared  of  a  similar 
armament. 

"  A  very  large  and  particular  description  of  this  navie  v.'aa 
put  in  print  and  published  by  the  Spaniards,  wherein  were  set 
downe  the  number,  names,  and  burthens  of  the  shippes,  the  num- 
ber of  mariners  and  soldiers  throughout  the  whole  fleete  ;  like 
wise  the  quantitie  of  their  ordinance,  of  their  armor,  of  buD-ats, 
of  match,  of  gun-poulder,  of  victuals,  and  of  all  their  navall  fur- 
niture was  in  the  saide  description  particularized.  Unto  all  these 
were  added  the  names  of  the  governours,  captaines,  noblemen, 
and  gentlemen  voluntaries,  of  whom  there  was  so  great  a  multi- 
tude, that  scarce  was  there  any  family  of  accompt,  or  any  one 
principall  man  throughout  all  Spaine,  that  had  not  a  brother, 
Bonne,  or  kinsman  in  that  fleete  ;  who  all  of  them  were  in  good 
hope  to  purchase  unto  themselves  in  that  navie  (as  they  torrnej 
it)  invincible,  endless  glory  and  renown,  and  to  possess  themselves 
ui  great  seigniories  and  riches  in  England  and  in  the  Lov/  Cjur- 
trcys.  But  because  the  said  description  was  translated  cr.d  pub- 
lished out  of  Spanish  into  divers  other  languages,  we  v^Jil.  her? 
Oiiiy  make  ar.  abridgement  or  biief  rehearsal  thereof. 

"  Portugall  funii.shed  and  set  focrth  under  the  conduc'.  ri"  tlia 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  general!  of  the  fleete,  10  galecRi?.  2  7.8 


iiii  DtfEAT     OF 

braes,  1300  mariners,  3300  souldiers,  300  great  pieces,  Avith  ah 
requisite  furniture. 

'•  Biscay,  under  the  conduct  of  John  Marlines  de  Eicahle,  ad- 
miral of  the  whole  fleete,  set  forth  10  galeons,  4  pataches,  700 
mariners,  2000  souldiers,  250  great  pieces,  &c. 

"  Guipusco,  under  the  conduct  of  Michael  de  OquenJo,  10  gal- 
e!>i.?,  4  pataches,  700  mariners,  2000  souldiers,  310  great  pieces 

'  Italy,  with  the  Levant  islands,  uiider  Martine  de  A'^ertcnidona, 
10  galeons,  800  mariners,  2000  souldiers,  310  great  pieces,  &c. 

"  Castile,  under  Diego  Flores  de  Valdez,  14  galeons,  2  pata- 
ches, 1700  mariners,  2400  souldiers,  and  380  great  pieces,  &c. 

"  Andaluzia,  under  the  conduct  of  Petro  de  Valdez,  10  galeons, 
1  patache,  800  mariners,  2400  souldiers,  280  great  pieces,  &c. 

"  Item,  under  t'he  conduct  of  John  Lopez  de  Medina,  23  great 
Flemish  hulkes,  with  700  mariners,  3200  souldiers,  and  400 
great  pieces. 

"  Item,  under  Hugo  de  Moncada,  4  galliasses,  containing  1200 
gally-slaves,  460  mariners,  870  souldiers,  200  great  pieces,  &c. 

"  Item,  under  Diego  de  Mandrana,  4  gallies  of  Portugall,  with 
888  gally-slaves,  360  mariners,  20  great  pieces,  and  other  requi- 
site furniture. 

"  Item,  under  Anthonie  de  Mendoza,  22  pataches  and  zabraes, 
with  574  mariners,  488  souldiers,  and  193  great  pieces. 

"  Besides  the  ships  aforementioned,  there  were  20  caravels 
rowed  with  oares,  being  appointed  to  performe  necessary  serv- 
ices under  the  greater  ships,  insomuch  that  all  the  ships  apper- 
tayning  to  this  navie  amounted  unto  the  summe  of  150,  eche 
one  being  sufficiently  provided  of  furniture  and  victuals. 

"  The  number  of  mariners  in  the  saide  fleete  Avere  above  8000, 
of  slaves  2088,  of  souldiers  20,000  (besides  noblemen  and  gen- 
tlemen voluntaries),  of  great  cast  pieces  2600.  The  foresaid 
ships  Mere  of  an  huge  and  incredible  capacitie  and  receipt,  for 
the  whole  fleete  was  large  enough  to  conlaine  the  burthen  of 
60  000  tunnes. 

'  The  galeons  were  64  in  number,  being  of  an  huge  bignesse, 
and  very  flatoly  built,  being  of  marveilous  force  also,  and  so  high 
thai  they  resembled  great  castles,  most  fit  to  defend  themselvia 
and  to  wiilistand  any  assault,  but  in  giving  any  other  ships  fhc 
cncounler  iarr  inferiour  unio  tlie  English  and  Dutcli  ships,  which 
can  with  great  dexteritie  weild  and  turne  themselves  at  all  as- 


THE     SPANISH      VKMADA.  26^ 

layes.  The  upper  worke  of  the  said  galeons  was. of  tliiclviK.-.-sc 
and  sticn^lh  sufRcieut  to  beare  off  musket-shot.  The  lower 
worke  ar»  the  timbers  thereof  were  out  of  measure  strong,  being 
framed  of  plankes  and  ribs  foure  or  five  foote  in  thicknesse,  inso- 
much that  no  bullets  could  pierce  them  but  such  as  were  dis- 
charged hard  at  hand,  which  afterward  prooved  true,  for  a  jrrcat 
number  of  bullets  were  founde  to  sticke  fast  within  the  massio 
Bubstance  of  those  thicke  plankes.  Great  and  well-pitched  ca- 
bles Avere  twined  about  the  masts  of  their  shippes,  to  strengthen 
them  against  the  battery  of  shot. 

"  The  galhasses  were  of  such  bignesse  that  they  contained 
within  them  chambers,  chapels,  turrets,  pulpits,  and  other  com- 
modities of  great  houses.  The  galliasses  were  rowed  with  great 
oares,  there  being  in  eche  one  of  them  300  slaves  for  the  same 
purpose,  and  were  able  to  do  great  service  with  the  force  of 
their  ordinance.  All  these,  together  with  the  residue  afore- 
named, v»-ere  furnished  and  beautified  with  trumpets,  streamers, 
banners,  warlike  ensignes,  and  other  such  like  ornaments. 

"Their  pieces  of  brazen  ordinance  were  IGOO,  and  of  yron  a 
1000. 

"The  bullets  thereto  belonging  were  120,000. 

"  Item  of  gun-poulder,  5600  quintals.  Of  matche,  1200  quin> 
cals.  Of  muskets  and  kaleivers,  7000.  Of  haleberts  and  parti- 
sans, 10,000. 

"  Moreover,  they  had  great  stores  of  canons,  double-canons, 
Bulverings  and  field-pieces  for  land  services. 

"  Likewise  they  were  provided  of  all  instrnmenis  necessary  on 
land  to  conveigh  and  transport  their  furniture  from  place  to  place, 
as  namely  of  carts,  wheeles,  wagons,  &c.  Also  they  had  spades, 
mattocks,  and  baskets  to  set  pioners  on  worke.  They  had  in  like 
sort  great  store  of  mules  and  horses,  and  whatsoever  else  was 
requisite  for  a  land  armie.  They  were  so  well  stored  of  biscuit, 
that  for  the  space  of  halfe  a  yeere  they  might  allow  eche  j)erson 
in  the  whole  fleete  halfe  a  quintall  every  moneth,  whereof  the 
whole  .summe  amounteth  unto  an  hundreth  thousand  quintals. 

"Likewise  of  wine  they  had  M7,000  pipes,  sufficient  also  for 
halfe  a  yeere's  expedition.  Ofbaijon,  6500  quintals.  Of  cheese, 
3000  quintals.      Besides  llsh,  rise,  beanes,  pease,  oile,  vinegar,  kc 

Moreover,  they  had  12,000  pipes  of  fresh  water,  and  all  othoi 
uecessary  prov  sion   as  niimely  candles,  lauternes,  lamp  ss,  sailea 


1166  DEFEAT     OP 

hempe,  oxe-hides,  and  lead,  to  stop  holes  that  should  be  made  wiiS 
the  battery  of  gunshot.  To  be  short,  they  brought  all  things  ex- 
pedient, either  for  a  fleete  by  sea,  or  for  an  armie  by  land. 

"This  navie  (as  Dieg:  Pimentelli  E^'^.erward  confessed)  was 
estiemed  by  the  king  bin  sclfe  to  containe  32,000  persons^  and 
to  cost  him  every  day  30, COO  ducates. 

'•  There  were  in  the  said  navie  five  terzaes  of  Spaniards  (which 
tei'zaes  the  Frenchmen  call  regiments),  under  the  lommand  of 
five  governours,  termed  by  the  Spaniards  masters  of  the  field, 
and  among  the  rest  there  were  many  olde  and  expert  souldiera 
chosen  out  of  the  garisons  of  Sicilie,  Naples,  and  Ter^era.  Their 
captaines  or  colonels  were  Diego  Pimentelli,  Don  Francisco  de 
Toledo,  Don  Alonfo  de  Lufon,  Don  Nicolas  de  Isla,  Don  Augus- 
tin  de  Mexia,  who  had  eche  of  them  thirty-two  companies  under 
their  conduct.  Besides  the  which  companies,  there  were  many 
bands  also  of  Castilians  and  Portugals,  every  one  of  which  had 
their  peculiar  governours,  captains,  officers,  colors,  and  weapons." 

While  this  huge  armament  was  making  ready  in  the  southern 
ports  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  the  Duke  of  Parma,  with  almost 
incredible  toil  and  skill,  collected  a  squadron  of  war-ships  at  Dun- 
kirk, and  a  large  flotilla  of  other  ships  and  of  flat-bottomed  boats 
"or  the  transport  to  England  of  the  picked  troops,  which  were 
aesigned  to  be  the  main  instruments  in  subduing  England.  The 
design  of  the  Spaniards  was  that  the  Armada  should  give  them, 
at  least  for  a  time,  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  that  it  should 
join  the  squadron  that  Parma  had  collected  ofl^  Calais.  Then, 
e^5Corted  by  an  overpowering  naval  force,  Parma  and  his  army 
were  to  embark  in  their  flotilla,  and  cross  the  sea  to  England, 
where  they  were  to  be  landed,  together  with  the  troops  which 
the  Armada  brought  from  the  ports  of  Spain.  The  scheme  was 
nol  dissimilar  to  one  formed  against  England  a  little  more  than 
two  centuries  afterward. 

As  Napoleon,  in  1805,  M'aited  with  his  army  and  flotilla  at 
.Boulogne,  looking  for  Villeneuve  to  drive  away  the  English 
sniiscrs,  and  secure  him  a  passage  across  the  Oiannel,  so  Par- 
ma, in  1588,  waited  for  Medina  Sidonia  to  drive  away  the 
Dnich  and  English  squadrons  that  watched  his  flotilla,  and  to 
enable  liis  vetr-raiis  to  cross  tlie  sea  to  the  land  tliat  they  were  to 
conquer.  Thanks  to  Providence,  in  each  case  England'"  eueinj 
waited  ir  vain  i 


THE     SPANISH     A  11  M  A  X)  A  .  23l 

Although  the  numbers  of  sail  which  the  queen's  govetnmenl 
ftnd  the  patriotic  zeal  ol"  volunteers  had  collected  for  tlie  defease 
of  England  exceeded  the  number  of  sail  in  the  Spanish  fleet,  th" 
Ejjglish  ships  were,  collectively,  far  inferior  in  size  to  their  ad 
versaries,  their  aggregate  tonnage  being  less  by  half  than  thai 
of  the  enemy.  In  the  number  of  guns  and  weight  of  metal,  the 
diejiroportion  was  still  greater.  The  English  admiral  was  also 
iii:liged  to  subdivide  his  force  ;  and  Lord  Henry  Seymour,  with 
loity  of  the  best  Dutch  and  English  ships,  was  employed  in  block- 
id  ing  the  hostile  ports  in  Flanders,  and  in  preventing  the  Duke 
of  Parma  from  coming  out  of  Dunkirk. 

The  Invincible  Armada,  as  the  Spaniards  in  the  pride  of 
their  hearts  named  it,  set  sail  from  the  Tagus  on  the  29th  of 
May,  but  near  Corunna  met  with  a  tempest  that  drove  it  into 
port  with  cevei'e  loss.  It  was  the  report  of  the  damage  done  to 
the  enemy  by  this  storm  Avhich  had  caused  the  English  court  to 
suppose  that  there  W'ould  he  no  invasion  that  year.  But,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  the  English  admiral  had  sailed  to  Corunna,  and 
learned  the  real  slate  of  the  ease,  whence  he  had  returned  with 
his  ships  to  Plymouth.  The  Armada  sailed  again  from  Corunna 
on  the  12th  of  July.  The  orders  of  King  Philip  to  the  Duke  de 
Medina  Sidonia  were,  that  he  should,  on  entering  the  Channel, 
keep  near  the  French  coast,  and,  if  attacked  by  the  English  ships, 
avoid  an  action  and  steer  on  to  Calais  Roads,  where  the  Princt. 
of  Parma's  squadron  \vas  to  join  him.  The  hope  of  surprising 
and  destroying  the  English  fleet  in  Plymouth  led  the  Spanish 
admiral  to  deviate  from  these  orders  and  to  stand  across  to  the 
English  shore  ;  but,  on  finding  that  Lord  Howard  was  coming 
out  to  meet  him,  he  I'esumcd  the  original  plan,  and  determined 
to  bend  his  way  steadily  toward  Calais  and  Dunkirk,  and  to  keep 
merely  on  the  defensive  against  such  squadrons  of  the  Enghsh 
as  might  come  up  with  hirn. 

T.  was  on  Saturday,  the  20th  of  July,  that  Lord  Effingham 
came  in  sight  of  his  ibrmidable  adversaries.  The  Armada  was 
drawn  up  in  form  of  a  crescent,  which,  from  horn  to  horn,  meaa- 
UTeJ  some  seven  miles  There  w.is  a  southwest  wind,  and  be- 
fore it  the  vast  vessels  sailed  slowly  on.  The  English  let  tlieni 
pays  by  ;  and  th3n,  following  in  the  rear,  commenced  an  attack 
or  them.  A  running  fight  now  look  place,  in  which  some  of  the 
best  ships  of  the  Spaniards  were  captured  ;  many  more  reccuved 


2&8  DEFEAT     OF 

heavy  damage  ,,  while  the  English  vessas,  which  took  caie  no' 
to  close  with  thiir  huge  antagonists,  but  availed  themselves  of 
their  superior  celerity  in  tacking  and  maneuvering,  suffered  little 
2ompaiative  loss.  Each  day  added  not  only  to  the  spirit,  but  tc 
the  number  of  Effingham's  force.  Raleigh,  Oxford,  Cumberland, 
and  Sheffield  joined  him  ;  and  "  the  gentlemen  of  England  hired 
rlijps  from  all  parts  at  their  own  charge,  and  with  one  accord 
Lame  flockirg  thither  as  to  a  set  field,  where  glory  was  to  be  at- 
tained, and  faithful  service  performed  unto  their  prince  and  their 
country." 

Raleigh  justly  praises  the  English  admiral  for  his  skillful  tac- 
tics. Raleigh  says,*  "  Certainly,  he  that  will  happily  perform  a 
fight;  at  sea  must  be  skillful  in  making  choice  of  vessels  to  fight 
in  :  he  must  believe  that  there  is  more  belonging  to  a  good  man 
of  war,  upon  the  waters,  than  great  daring  ;  and  must  know,  that 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  difl'erence  between  fighting  loose  or  at 
large  and  grappling.  The  guns  of  a  slow  ship  pierce  as  well 
and  make  as  great  holes,  as  those  in  a  swift.  To  clap  ships  to- 
gether, without  consideration,  belongs  rather  to  a  madman  than 
to  a  man  of  war ;  for  by  such  an  ignorant  bravery  was  Peter 
Strossie  lost  at  the  Azores,  when  he  fought  against  the  Marquis 
of  Santa  Cruza.  In  like  sort  had  the  Lord  Charles  Howard,  ad- 
miral of  England,  been  lost  in  the  year  1588,  if  he  had  not  been 
better  advised  than  a  great  many  malignant  fools  were  that  found 
fault  with  his  demeanor.  The  Spaniards  had  an  army  aboard 
them,  and  he  had  none  ;  they  had  more  ships  than  he  had.  and 
of  higher  building  and  charging  ;  so  that,  had  he  entangled  him- 
self with  those  great  and  powerful  vessels,  he  had  greatly  endan- 
gered this  kingdom  of  England  ;  for  twenty  men  upon  the  de- 
fenses are  equal  to  a  hundred  that  board  and  enter;  wheieaa 
then,  contrariwise,  the  Spaniards  had  a  hundred,  for  twenty  of 
oars,  to  defend  themselves  withal.  But  our  admiral  knew  his  ad- 
vantage, and  lield  it  ;  which  had  he  not  done,  he  had  not  been 
\*orthy  to  have  held  his  head." 

The  Spanish  admiral  also  showed  great  judgment  and  firmness 
.11  following  the  line  of  conduct  that  had  been  traced  out  for  him  ; 
ai.d  on  the  27th  of  July,  he  brought  his  fleet  unbroken,  though 
«oiely  distressed,  to  anchor  in  Calais  Roads.  But  the  King  of 
Spain  had  calculated  ill  the  number  and  the  activity  of  the  Bn 
•  "Historic  of  the  World,"  p.  791. 


THE     SPANISH     AUMADA.  2/13 

glibh  and  Dutch  fleets  ;  as  the  old  historian  expiesses  it,  "  It 
Bcemeth  that  tlie  Duke  of"  Parma  and  the  Spaniards  grouiidsd 
npou  a  vain  and  presumptuous  expectation,  that  all  the  ships  of 
England  and  of  the  Low  Couutreys  would  at  the  first  sight  of  the 
Spanish  and  Dunkerk  navie  have  betaken  themselves  to  flight, 
yeelding  them  sea-room,  and  endeavoring  only  to  defend  them- 
eelues,  their  havens,  and  sea-coasts  from  invasion.  Whereiore 
their  intent  and  purpose  was,  that  the  Duke  of  Parma,  in  his 
Email  and  flat-bottomed  ships,  should,  as  it  were  under  the  shadow 
and  wings  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  convey  ouer  all  his  troupes,  ar- 
mor, and  war-like  provisions,  and  with  their  forces  so  united,  should 
invade  England  ;  or  Avhile  the  English  fleet  were  busied  in  fight 
against  the  Spanish,  should  enter  upon  any  part  of  the  coast, 
which  he  thought  to  be  most  convenient.  Which  invasion  (as  the 
captives  afterward  confessed)  the  Duke  of  Parma  thought  first  to 
have  attempted  by  the  River  of  Thames  ;  upon  the  bankes  where- 
of having  at  the  first  arrivall  lauded  twenty  or  thirty  thousand 
of  his  principall  souldiers,  he  supposed  that  he  might  easily  have 
woonne  the  citie  of  London  ;  both  because  his  small  shippes 
should  have  followed  and  assisted  his  land  forces,  and  also  for 
that  the  citie  it-selfe  was  but  meanely  fortified  and  easie  to  ouer- 
come,  by  reason  of  the  citizens'  delicacie  and  discontinuance  from 
the  warres,  who,  with  contiimall  and  constant  labor,  might  bt 
vancpiished,  if  they  yielded  not  at  the  first  assault."* 

But  the  English  and  Dutch  found  ships  and  mariners  enougli 
to  keep  the  Armada  itself  in  check,  and  at  the  same  time  to  block 
up  Parma's  flotilla.  The  greater  part  of  Seymour's  squadron  left 
its  cruising-ground  off'  Dunkirk  to  join  the  English  admiral  ofl" 
Calais  ;  but  the  Dutch  manned  about  five-and-thirty  sail  of  good 
ships,  with  a  strong  force  of  soldiers  on  board,  all  well  seasoned 
to  the  sea-service,  and  with  these  they  blockaded  the  Flemish 
ports  that  were  in  Parma's  power.  Still  it  was  resolved  by  the 
S})ani&h  admiral  and  the  prince  to  endeavor  to  effect  a  junction, 
wliich  the  Enghsh  seamen  were  equally  resolute  to  prevent  ;  and 
bolder  measures  on  our  side  now  became  necessary. 

The  Armada  lay  ofT  Calais,  with  its  largest  ships  ranged  cut- 
side,  "  like  strong  castles  fearing  no  assault,  the  lesser  plac»d  in 
the  middle  ward."  The  English  admiral  could  not  attack  them 
,'n  their  position  without  great  disadvantage,  but  on  the  night  ol 
•  Hakluyt's  '♦  Vojages,"  vol.  i.,  p.  601. 


860  DEFEAT     OF 

the  29th  he  sent  eight  fire-ships  among  them,  with  almost  equa^ 
efFect  to  that  of  the  fire-ships  which  the  Greeks  so  f  ften  employ* 
ed  against  the  Turkish  fleets  in  their  late  war  of  independence. 
Tlie  Spaniards  cut  their  cables  and  put  to  sea  in  confusion.  One 
of  the  largest  galeasses  ran  foul  of  another  vessel  and  was  strand- 
ed. The  rest  of  the  fleet  was  scattered  about  on  the  Flemish 
coast,  and  when  the  morning  broke,  it  was  with  difficulty  and  de" 
lay  that  they  obeyed  their  admiral's  signal  to  range  themselves 
round  him  near  Gravcilines.  Now  was  the  golden  opportunity 
for  the  English  to  assail  them,  and  prevent  them  from  ever  let- 
ting loose  Parma's  flotilla  against  England,  and  nobly  was  that 
opportunity  used.  Drake  and  Fenner  were  the  first  English  cap- 
tains who  attacked  the  unwieldy  leviathans  ;  then  came  Fenton, 
Southwell,  Burton,  Cross,  Raynor,  and  then  the  lord  admiral, 
with  Lord  Thomas  Howard  and  Lord  Sheffield.  The  Spaniards 
only  thought  of  forming  and  keeping  close  together,  and  were 
driven  by  the  English  past  Dunkirk,  and  far  away  from  the 
Prince  of  Parma,  who,  in  watching  their  defeat  from  the  coast, 
must,  as  Drake  expressed  it,  have  chafed  like  a  bear  robbed  of 
her  whelps.  This  was  indeed  the  last  and  the  decisive  battle 
between  the  two  fleets.  It  is,  perhaps,  best  described  in  the  very 
words  of  the  contemporary  writer,  as  we  may  read  them  in  Hak- 
luyt.* 

"  Upon  the  29  of  July  in  the  morning,  the  Spanish  fleet  after 
the  fofsayd  tumult,  having  arranged  themselues  againe  into  or 
der,  were,  within  sight  of  Greveling,  most  bravely  and  furiously 
encountered  by  the  English,  where  they  once  again  got  the  wind 
of  the  Spaniards,  who  suflijred  themselues  to  be  deprived  of  the 
commodity  of  the  place  in  Caleis  Road,  and  of  the  advantage  of 
the  wind  neer  unto  Dunkerk,  rather  than  they  would  change 
their  array  or  separate  their  forces  now  conjoyned  and  united  to- 
gether, standing  only  upon  their  defense. 

"  And  albeit  there  were  many  excellent  and  warlike  ships  in 

lie  English  fleet,  yet  scarce  were  there  22  or  23   among  theni 

11,  Avhich  matched  90  of  the  Spanish  ships  in  the  bigness,  or 

ould  conveniently  assault  them.     Wherefore  the  English  shippea 

using  their  prerogative  of  nimble  steerage,  whereby  they  could 

turn  and  wield  themselues  with  the  Avind  which  way  they  liet- 

Bti.  came  often  limca  very  near  u^ion  the  Spaniards,  and  charged 

•  Vol.  i.,  p  602. 


THE     S  PA  N8K     ARMADA.  2GJ 

them  80  sore,  that  now  and  tlien  they  were  but  a  pike's  length 
asnnder  ;  and  so  continually  giving  them  one  broad  side  alter  an- 
other, they  discharged  all  their  shot,  both  great  and  small,  upon 
them,  spending  one  whole  day,  from  morning  till  night,  in  that 
violent  kind  of"  conflict,  untill  su.'h  time  as  powder  and  bullets 
lailed  them  In  regard  of  which  want  they  thought  it  conven- 
ient not  to  pursue  the  Spaniards  any  longer,  because  they  had 
many  great  vantages  of  the  English,  namely,  for  the  extraordi- 
nary bigness  of  their  shippes,  and  also  for  that  they  were  so  neere- 
ly  conjoyned,  and  kept  together  in  so  good  array,  that  they  could 
by  no  meanes  be  foueht  withall  one  to  one.  The  English  thought, 
therefore,  that  they  had  right  well  acquitted  themselues  in  chas- 
ing the  Spaniards  first  from  Caleis,  and  then  from  Dunkerk,  and 
by  that  meanes  to  have  hindered  them  from  joyning  with  the 
Duke  of  Parma  his  forces,  and  getting  the  wind  of  them,  to  have 
driven  them  from  their  own  coasts. 

"  The  Spaniards  that  day  sustained  great  loss  and  damage, 
having  many  of  their  shippes  shot  thorow  and  thorow,  and  they 
discharged  likewise  great  store  of  ordinance  against  the  English  ; 
who,  indeed,  sustained  some  hinderance,  but  not  comparable  to 
the  Spaniard's  loss ;  for  they  lost  not  any  one  ship  or  person  of 
account ;  for  very  diligent  inquisition  being  made,  the  English 
men  all  that  time  wherein  the  Spanish  navy  sayled  upon  thei*. 
seas,  are  not  found  to  haue  wanted  aboue  one  hundred  of  theii 
people  ;  albeit  Sir  Francis  Drake's  ship  was  pierced  with  shot 
aboue  forty  times,  and  his  very  cabben  was  twice  shot  thorow, 
and  about  the  conclusion  of  the  fight,  the  bed  of  a  certaine  gen- 
tleman lying  weary  thereupon,  was  taken  quite  from  under  him 
with  the  force  of  a  bullet.  Likewise,  as  the  Earle  of  Northum- 
berland and  Sir  Charles  Blunt  were  at  dinner  upon  a  time,  the 
bullet  of  a  demy-culvering  brake  thorow  the  middest  of  their  cab- 
ben, touched  their  feet,  and  strooke  downe  two  of  the  standers-by, 
w)th  many  such  accidents  befalling  the  English  shippes,  which 
it  were  tedious  to  rehearse." 

It  reflects  little  credit  on  the  English  government  that  the 
English  fleet  was  so  deficiently  supplied  with  ammunition  as  to 
be  unable  to  complete  the  destruction  of  the  invaders.  But  enough 
was  done  to  insure  it.  Many  of  the  largest  Spanish  ships  were 
sunk  or  captured  in  the  action  of  this  day.  And  at  length  tlie 
Spanish  admiral,  despairing  of  success,  fled  northward  with  a 


Jjb2  DEFEAT     OF     THE     J.'ANISH     ARMADA.. 

southerly  wind,  in  the  hope  of  rounding  Scotland,  and  so  return' 
ing  to  Spain  without  a  farther  encounter  with  the  English  fleet 
Lord  Effingham  left  a  squadron  to  continue  the  blockade  of  tht 
Prince  of  Parma's  annament ;  but  that  wise  general  soon  with- 
drew his  troops  to  more  promising  fields  of  action.  Meanwhili 
the  lord  admiral  himself,  and  Drake,  chased  the  vinoible  Armada 
as  it  was  now  termed,  for  some  distance  northward  ;  and  then, 
when  the}'  seemed  to  bend  away  from  the  Scotch  coast  toward 
Norway,  it  was  thought  best,  in  the  words  of  Drake,  "  to  leave 
them  to  those  boisterous  and  uncouth  Northern  seas." 

The  sufferings  and  losses  which  the  unhappy  Spaniards  sus- 
tained in  their  flight  round  Scotland  and  Ireland  are  well  known. 
Of  their  whole  Armada  only  fifty-three  shattered  vessels  brought 
back  their  beaten  and  wasted  crews  to  the  Spamsh  coast  which 
they  had  quitted  in  such  pageantry  and  pride. 

Some  passages  from  the  writings  of  those  who  took  part  in 
the  struggle  have  been  already  quoted,  and  the  most  spirited  de- 
scription of  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  which  ever  was  penned 
may  perhaps  be  taken  from  the  letter  which  our  brave  Yice-ad- 
miral  Drake  wrote  in  answer  to  some  mendacious  stories  by 
which  the  Spaniards  strove  to  hide  their  shame.  Thus  does  he 
Hescribe  the  scenes  in  which  he  played  so  important  a  part.* 

"  They  were  not  ashamed  to  publish,  in  sundry  languages  in 
print,  great  victories  in  words,  M'hich  they  pretended  to  have  ob- 
tained against  this  realm,  and  spread  the  same  in  a  most  false 
sort  over  all  parts  of  France,  Italy,  and  elsewhere  ;  when,  shortly 
afterward,  it  was  happily  manifested  in  very  deed  to  all  nations, 
how  their  navy,  which  they  termed  invincible,  consisting  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  sail  of  .ships,  not  only  of  their  OAvn  kingdom, 
but  strengthened  with  the  greatest  argosies,  Portugal  carrar.ks, 
Florentines,  and  large  hulks  of  other  countries,  were  by  thirty 
of  her  majesty's  own  ships  of  war,  and  a  few  of  our  own  mer- 
chants, by  the  wise,  valiant,  and  advantageous  conduct  of  the 
Lord  Charles  Howard,  high  admiral  of  England,  beaten  and 
shufrieJ  together  even  from  the  Lizard  in  Cornwall,  first  to  Port- 
land, wlien  they  shamefully  left  Don  Pedro  de  Valdez  with  his 
mighty  ship  ;  from  Portland  to  Calais,  where  they  lost  Hugh  de 
Moncado,  with  the  galleys  of  which  he  was  captain;  and  from 

•  See  Sirype,  and  the  notes  to  tlie  Life  of  Drake,  in  he  "  Biogiaphia 
Britannica." 


SYNOPSIS     OF     E  V  E  X  I  B,    E  T  -  .  26d 

Calais,  drii'en  with  squibs  from  their  anchors,  W'cre  chased  out 
of  the  sight  of  England,  round  about  Scotland  and  Iieland  ; 
where,  for  the  sympathy  of  their  religion,  hoping  to  find  succor 
and  assistance,  a  great  part  of  them  were  crushed  against  the 
rooks,  and  those  others  that  landed,  being  very  many  in  number, 
wore,  notwithstanding,  broken,  slain,  and  taken,  and  so  sent  from 
"liilage  to  village,  coupled  in  halters  to  be  shipped  into  England^ 
v/licre  her  majesty,  of  her  princely  and  invincible  disposition,  dis- 
daining to  put  them  to  death,  and  scorning  either  to  retain  or  to 
entertain  them,  they  were  all  sent  back  again  to  their  countries, 
to  witnoss  and  recovuit  the  worthy  achievement  of  their  invinci- 
ble and  dreadl'ul  navy.  Of  which  the  number  of  soldiers,  the 
fearful  burden  of  their  ships,  the  commanders'  names  of  every 
squadron,  with  all  others,  their  magazines  of  provision,  were  put 
in  print,  as  an  army  and  navy  irresistible  and  disdaining  pre- 
vention ;  with  all  which  their  great  and  terrible  ostentation,  they 
did  not  in  all  their  sailing  round  about  England  so  much  as  sint 
or  take  one  ship,  barque,  pinnace,  or  cock-boat  of  ours,  or  even 
burn  so  much  as  one  sheep-cote  on  this  land." 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish 
Armada,  A.D.  1568,  and  the  Battle  of  Blenheim,  A.D 
1704. 

A.D.  1594.  Henry  IV.  of  France  conforms  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  and  ends  the  civil  wars  that  had  long  desolated 
France. 

1598.  Philip  II.  of  Spain  dies,  leaving  a  ruined  navy  and  an 
ciliausted  kingdom. 

1603.  Death  of  dueen  Elizabeth.  The  Scotch  dynasty  of  tho 
Pluarts  succeeds  to  the  throne  of  England. 

1619.   Commencement  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany. 

1624—1612.  Cardinal  Richelieu  is  minister  of  France.  He 
areaks  the  power  of  the  nobility,  reduces  the  Hugueuots  to  com- 
plete subjection,  and  by  aiding  the  Protestant  German  princes 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  he  humihatea 
France's  ancient  rival,  Austria. 

1630.  Gustavus  Adolphug,  King  of  Sweden,  marches  into  Gei- 
many  to  the   assistance   of  the    Protestants,   -who   were   nearl^f 


*.'M  SVKOPSIS     (   F     EVE.\-TS,     ETC. 

crushed  by  the  Austrian  armies.  He  gains  several  great  vicH> 
ties,  and,  after  his  death,  Sweden,  under  his  statesmen  and  geU' 
erals,  continues  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  why. 

1640.  Portugal  throws  ofl  the  Spanish  yoke  ;  and  the  houEe 
i)f  Bragauza  begins  to  reign. 

1642.  Commencement  of  the  civil  war  in  England  between 
dharles  I.  and  his  Parliament. 

1648.  The  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany  ended  by  the  treaty 
oi  Westphalia. 

1653.   Oliver  Cromwell  Lord  Protector  of  England. 

1600.  Restoration  of  the  Stuarts  to  the  English  throne. 

1601.  Louis  XIV.  takes  the  administration  of  affairs  in  France 
into  his  own  hands. 

J.667— 1668.  Louis  XIV.  makes  war  on  Spain,  and  conquers 
a  large  part  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands. 

1672.  Louis  makes  war  upon  Holland,  and  almost  overpow- 
ers it.  Charles  II.,  of  England,  is  his  pensioner,  and  England 
helps  the  French  in  their  attacks  upon  Holland  until  1674.  He- 
roic resistance  of  the  Dutch  under  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

1674.  Louis  conquers  Franche-Comte. 

1679.   Peace  of  Nimeguen. 

1681.  Louis  invades  and  occupies  Alsace. 

1682.  Accession  of  Peter  the  Great  to  the  throne  of  Kusgia. 
1685.  Louis  commences  a  merciless  persecution  of  his  Prot* 

estant  subjects. 

1668.  The  glorious  Revolution  in  England.  Expulsion  o{ 
James  II.  William  of  Orange  is  made  King  of  England.  Janes 
takes  refuge  at  the  French  court,  and  Louis  undertakes  to  restore 
him.     General  war  in  the  west  of  Europe. 

1697.  Treaty  of  Ryswick.  Charles  XII.  becomes  King  of 
Sweden. 

1700.  Charles  II.,  of  Spain,  dies,  having  bequeathed  his  do 
minions  to  Philip  of  Anjou,  Louis  XIV. 's  grandson.  Defeat  of 
ikt  Russians  at  Narva  by  Charles  XII. 

1701.  William  III.  forms  a  "  Grand  Alliance"  of  Austria,  th« 
'dnpire,  the  United  Provinces,  England,  and  other  powers,  againat 
Fiance. 

1702.  King  William  dies ;  but  his  successor,  dueen  Anne, 
idheres  to  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  war  is  proclaimed  agaiirst 
!  ranee. 


BATTLE     OF     BLENHEiM.  26S 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CHE  BATTLE  OF  BLENHEIM,  AD.  1734. 

'/"he  decisive  blowstrucit  at  Blenheim  resounded  through  every  paitof 
r jrope  :  it  at  once  destroyed  the  vast  fabric  of  power  which  it  had  taiien 
Louis  XIV.,  aided  by  the  talents  of  Turenne  and  tlie  genius  of  Vauban,  so 
long  to  construct. — Alison. 

Though  more  slowdy  moulded  and  less  imposingly  vast  thaiv 
the  empire  of  Napoleon,  the  power  which  Louis  XIV.  had  ac- 
quired and  was  acquiring  at  the  commencement  of  tJie  eighteenth 
century  was  almost  equally  menacing  to  the  general  liberties 
of  Europe.  If  tested  by  the  amount  of  j^ermanent  aggrandize- 
ment wliich  each  procured  for  France,  the  ambition  of  the  royal 
Bourbon  was  more  successful  than  were  the  enterprises  of  the 
imperial  Corsican.  All  the  provinces  that  Bonaparte  conquered 
were  rent  again  from  France  within  twenty  years  from  the  date 
when  the  very  earliest  of  them  was  acquired.  France  is  not 
stronger  by  a  single  city  or  a  single  acre  for  all  the  devastating 
wars  of  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire.  But  she  still  possesses 
Franche-Comte,  Alsace,  and  part  of  Flanders.  She  has  still  the 
extended  boundaries  which  Louis  XIV.  gave  her ;  and  the  royal 
Spanish  marriages  a  few  years  ago  proved  clearly  how  enduring 
has  been  the  political  influence  which  the  arts  and  arms  of 
France's  "  Grand  Monarque"  obtained  for  her  southward  of  tho 
Pyrenees. 

When  Louis  XIV.  took  the  reins  of  government  into  his  own 
hands,  after  the  death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  there  was  a  union 
of  abihty  with  opportunity  such  as  Fiance  had  not  seen  sinor  ihe 
days  of  Charlemagne.  Moreover,  Louis's  career  was  no  bnel 
one.  For  upward  of  forty  years,  for  a  period  nearly  equal  to  the 
duration  of  Charlemagne's  reign,  Louis  steadily  followed  an  ag 
giessive  and  a  generally  successful  policy.  He  passed  a  long 
youth  and  raanliood  of  triumph  before  the  military  genius  of  J\J  ari 
Dorough  made  him  acquainted  with  humiliation  and  defeat.  The 
great  Bourbon  lived  too  long.  He  should  not  have  outstayed  oui 
two  English  kings,  one  hie  dependent,  James  II.,  the  other  hi8 

M 


'46b  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM. 

antagonist,  William  III.  Had  he  died  when  they  died,  his  reior. 
would  be  cited  as  unequaled  in  the  French  annals  for  its  pn.s 
perity.  But  he  hved  on  to  see  his  armies  beaten,  his  cities  caj)' 
tured,  and  his  kingdom  wasted  year  after  year  by  disastrous  war, 
It  is  as  if  Charlemagne  had  survived  to  be  defeated  by  the  Not  ill- 
men,  and  to  witness  the  misery  and  shame  that  actiially  fell  to 
the  lot  of  his  descendants. 

Still,  Louis  XIV.  had  forty  years  of  success  ;  and  fiom  tho  pc  r- 
manence  of  their  fruits,  we  may  judge  what  the  results  would 
have  been  if  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  reign  had  been  equally 
fortunate.  Had  it  not  been  for  Blenheim,  all  Europe  might  at 
this  day  suffer  under  the  effect  of  French  conquests  resembling 
those  of  Alexander  in  extent,  and  those  of  the  Romans  in  dura- 
bility. 

When  Louis  XIV.  began  to  govern,  he  found  all  the  materials 
for  a  strong  government  ready  to  his  hand.  Richelieu  had  com- 
pletely tamed  the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  French  nobility,  and  had 
subverted  the  "  imperium  in  imperio"  of  the  Huguenots.  The 
faction  of  the  Frondeurs  in  Mazarin's  time  had  had  the  effect  of 
making  the  Parisian  Parliament  utterly  hateful  and  contemptible 
in  the  eyes  of  the  nation.  The  Assemblies  of  the  States-General 
were  obsolete.  The  royal  authority  alone  remained.  The  king 
was  the  state.  Louis  knew  his  position.  He  fearlessly  avowed 
it,  and  he  fearlessly  acted  up  to  it.* 

Not  only  was  his  government  a  strong  one,  but  the  countr) 
which  he  governed  was  strong — strong  in  its  geographical  situa- 
tion, in  the  compactness  of  its  territory,  in  the  number  and  mar 
tial  spirit  of  its  inhabitants,  and  in  their  complete  and  undivided 
nationality.  Louis  had  neither  a  Hungary  nor  an  Ireland  in  his 
dominions.  The  civil  war  in  the  Cevenues  was  caused  solely  by 
his  own  persecuting  intolerance  ;  and  that  did  not  occur  till  late 
in  h'P  reign,  when  old  age  had  made  his  bigotry  more  gloomy, 
and  had  given  fanaticism  the  mastery  over  prudence. 

Like  Napoleon  in  after  times,  Louis  XIV.  saw  clearly  that  the 
great  wants  of  France  were  "  ships,  colonies,  and  commerce." 
But  Louis  did  more  than  see  these  wants  :  by  the  aid  of  his  grcal 
minister,  Colbert,  he  supplied  them.     One  of  the  surest  proofs  of 

♦  "Quand  Louis  XIV.  (lit,  '  L'Etat,  c'est  noi :'  il  n'y  er.i  dans  cette 
parole  ni  cnfliire,  ni  vantere,  nais  la  simple  °nonciatioti  .^'ur  fait."— 
MicHELKT,  Histoire  Moderne,  vol.  ii  ,  p.  106. 


KVTTLE     OF     BLENHfi    M.  267 

the  genius  of  Louis  was  his  skill  in  finding  out  genius  in  otJierSj 
and  his  promptness  in  calling  it  into  action.  Under  him,  Lou- 
wois  orjjanized,  Turenne,  Conde,  Villars,  and  Berwick  led  the  ar 
mies  of  France,  and  Vauhan  fortified  her  frontiers.  Through 
out  his  reign,  French  diplomacy  was  marked  by  skilll'ulness  and 
activity,  and  also  by  comprehensive  far-sightedness,  such  as  the 
representatives  of  no  other  nation  possessed.  Guizot's  testimony 
to  the  vigor  that  was  displayed  through  every  branch  of  Louis 
XIV. 's  government,  and  to  the  extent  to  which  France  at  present 
is  indebted  to  him,  is  remarkable.  He  says  that,  "taking  the 
public  services  of  every  kind,  the  finances,  the  departments  of 
roads  and  public  works,  the  military  administration,  and  all  the 
establishments  which  belong  to  every  branch  of  administration, 
there  is  not  one  that  will  not  be  found  +.0  have  had  its  origin,  its 
development,  or  its  greatest  perfection  under  the  reign  of  Louia 
XIV. "^'^  And  he  points  out  to  us  that  "  the  government  of  Louis 
XIV.  was  the  first  that  presented  itself  to  the  eyes  of  Europe  as 
a,  power  acting  upon  sure  grounds,  which  had  not  to  dispute  its 
existence  with  inward  enemies,  but  was  at  ease  as  to  its  territory 
and  its  people,  and  solely  occupied  with  the  task  of  administer 
ing  government,  propei'ly  so  called.  All  the  European  govern 
ments  had  been  previously  thrown  into  incessant  wars,  which  de- 
prived them  of  all  security  as  well  as  of  all  leisure,  or  so  pestered 
by  internal  parties  or  antagonists  that  their  time  was  passed  iu 
fighting  for  existence.  The  government  of  Louis  XIV.  was  the 
first  to  appear  as  a  busy,  thriving  administration  of  aflairs,  as  a 
power  at  once  definitive  and  progressive,  which  was  not  afraid 
to  innovate,  because  it  could  reckon  securely  on  the  future. 
There  have  been,  in  fact,  very  few  governments  equally  innova- 
ting. Compare  it  with  a  government  of  the  same  nature,  the 
unmixed  monarchy  of  Philip  II.  in  Spain  ;  it  was  more  absolute 
l!ian  that  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  yet  it  was  far  less  regular  and  tran- 
(piii.  How  did  Philip  II.  succeed  in  establishing  absolute  f  ower 
in  Sjiain  ?  By  stilling  all  activity  in  the  country,  oppcsing  him- 
self to  every  species  of  amelioration,  and  rendering  the  state  0/ 
Spain  completely  stagnant.  The  government  of  Lcuis  XIV.,  on 
the  contrary,  exhibited  alacrity  for  all  sorts  of  innovations,  and 
ghowed  itself  favorable  to  the  progress  of  letters,  arts,  wealth — 
la  short,  of  civilization.  This  was  the  veritable  cause  of  its  prt> 
•  "  History  of  Eurofean  Civilization,"  I>'ctiire  13 


S?68  UATTLE     OF     BLENULIM. 

ponderance  iu  Europe,  Avhich  arose  to  such  a  pilchj  that  it  be 
came  the  type  of  a  government  not  only  to  sovereigns,  but  also  ta 
nations,  during  the  seventeenth  century." 

While  France  was  thus  strong  and  united  in  herself,  and  ruled 
by  a  martial,  an  ambitious,  and  (with  all  his  faults)  an  enlight- 
ened and  high-spirited  sovereign,  what  European  power  waa 
there  fit  to  cope  with  her  or  keep  her  in  check  ? 

"  As  to  Germany,  the  ambitious  projects  of  the  German  branch 
of  Austria  had  been  entirely  defeated,  the  peace  of  the  empire 
had  been  restored,  and  almost  a  new  constitution  formed,  or  an 
old  revived,  by  the  treaties  of  Westphalia ;  nay,  the  imperiaf. 
eagle  was  not  only  fallen,  hut  her  wings  ivere  clipj^ed."* 

As  to  Spain,  the  Spanish  branch  of  the  Austrian  house  had 
sunk  equally  low.  Philip  II.  left  his  successors  a  ruined  mon- 
archy. He  left  them  something  worse  ;  he  left  them  his  exam 
pie  and  his  principles  of  government,  founded  in  ambition,  in 
pride,  in  ignorance,  in  bigotry,  and  all  the  pedantry  of  state. t 

It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at,  that  France,  in  the  first 
war  of  Louis  XIV.,  despised  the  opposition  of  both  branches  of 
the  once  predominant  house  of  Austria.  Indeed,  in  Germany, 
the  French  king  acquired  allies  among  the  princes  of  the  empire 
against  the  emperor  himself.  He  had  a  still  stronger  support  in 
Austria's  misgovernment  of  her  own  subjects.  The  words  of  Bo- 
lingbroke  on  this  are  remarkable,  and  some  of  them  sound  as  if 
written  within  the  last  three  years.  Bolingbroke  says,  "  It  was 
not  merely  the  want  of  cordial  co-operation  among  the  princes  of 
the  empire  that  disabled  the  emperor  from  acting  with  vigor  in 
the  cause  of  his  family  then,  nor  that  has  rendered  the  house  of 
Austria  a  dead  weight  upon  all  her  allies  ever  since.     Bigotry, 

*•  Bolingbroke,  vol.  ii.,  p.  378.  Lord  Bolingbroke's  "  Letters  on  the  Use 
of  History,"  and  his  "  Sketch  of  the  History  and  State  of  Europe  "  abound 
with  remarks  on  I^ouis  XIV.  and  liis  contemporaries,  of  which  the  sub- 
stance IS  as  sound  as  the  style  is  beautiful.  Unfortunately,  like  all  his 
otisr  works,  they  contain  also  a  large  proportion  of  sophistry  and  misrep- 
resentation. The  best  test  to  use  before  we  adopt  any  opinion  or  asser- 
tion of  Bolingbroke's,  is  to  consider  whether  in  writing  it  he  was  think- 
ing either  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  or  of  Revealed  Religion.  When  eitiier 
of  these  objects  of  liis  hatred  was  before  his  mind,  he  scrupled  at  no  arti- 
fice or  exaggeration  that  might  serve  the  purpose  of  his  malignity.  On 
most  other  occasions  he  may  he  followed  with  advantage,  as  he  always 
may  be  read  with  pleasure.  t  Bolingbrttke,  vol   ii  ,  p  37S 


B  A  T  T  L  E     O  F     15  L  K  MI  K  1  M.  269 

iiuJ  its  inseparable  conipanion,  cruelly,  as  well  as  the  tyranny 
and  avarice  of  the  court  of  Af  lenna,  created  in  those  days,  and 
has  maintained  in  ours,  almost  a  perpetual  d'  (■rsion  of  the  im- 
perial arms  from  all  eflectual  opposition  to  France.  /  nnean  to 
S2^cak  of  the  troubles  in  Hungary.  Whatever  they  became  in 
their  j^rogress,  they  iverc  caused  originally  by  the  uswyationb 
and  j'ersecutions  of  the  eiwperor ;  and  when  the  Hungarians 
uere  called  rebels  first,  they  were  called  so  for  no  other  reason 
than  tills,  that  they  ^vould  not  be  slaves.  The  dominion  of  the 
emperor  being  less  supportable  than  that  of  the  Turks,  this  un- 
happy people  opened  a  door  to  the  latter  to  infest  the  empire,  in 
stead  of  making  their  country,  what  it  had  been  before,  a  bar 
rier  against  the  Ottoman  power.  France  became  a  sure  though 
secret  ally  of  the  Turks  as  well  as  the  Hungarians,  and  has  found 
her  account  in  it  by  keeping  the  emperor  in  perpetual  alarms  on 
that  side,  while  she  has  ravaged  the  empire  and  the  Low  Coun- 
tries on  the  other."* 

If,  after  having  seen  the  imbecility  of  Germany  and  Spam 
against  the  France  of  Louis  XIV.,  we  turn  to  the  two  only  re- 
maining European  powers  of  any  importance  at  that  time,  to 
England  and  to  Holland,  we  find  the  position  of  our  own  country 
as  to  European  politics,  from  1660  to  1688,  most  painful  to  con- 
template ;  nor  is  our  external  history  during  the  last  twelve  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century  by  any  means  satisfactory  to  national 
pride,  though  it  is  infinitely  less  shameful  than  that  of  the  pre- 
ceding twenty-eight  years.  From  1660  to  1668,  "England,  by 
the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  was  reduced  to  a  nullity."  The  words 
are  Michelet's,t  and,  though  severe,  they  are  just.  They  are,  in 
fact,  not  severe  enough  ;  for  when  England,  under  her  restored 
dynasty  of  the  Stuarts,  did  take  any  part  in  European  politics, 
her  conduct,  or  rather  her  king's  conduct,  was  almost  invariably 
wicked  and  dishonorable. 

Bolingbroke  rightly  says  that,  previous  to  the  revolution  of 
1688,  during  the  whole  progress  that  Louis  XIV.  made  toM^ard 
acquiring  such  exorbitant  power  as  gave  him  well-grounded 
hopes  of  acquiri.ig  at  last  to  his  family  the  Spanish  monarchy, 
England  had  bcm  either  an  idle  spectator  of  what  passed  on  the 
(Continent,  or  a  faint  and  uncertain  ally  against  J  rauce,  or  4 

*  Bolingbroke,  vol.  ii.,  p.  397. 

t    '  Histoire  Moderne,"  vol.  ii ,  p.  106. 


27G  BATTLE     OF     liLENHEIM. 

warm  iiid  sure  ally  on  her  side,  or  a  partial  nicaiaior  Tjttweec 
her  and  the  po^A•ers  confederated  together  in  their  common  de- 
fense. But  though  the  court  of  England  submitted  to  abet  the 
usurpations  of  France,  and  the  King  of  England  stooped  to  be 
her  pensioner,  the  crime  was  not  national.  On  the  contrary,  the 
nation  ciied  out  loudly  against  it  even  while  it  was  commit- 
ting.* 

Holland  alone,  of  all  the  European  powers,  opposed  from  the 
very  begiim^ing  a  steady  and  uniform  resistance  to  the  ambition 
and  power  of  the  French  Idng.  It  was  against  Holland  that  the 
fiercest  attacks  of  France  were  made,  and,  though  often  appar- 
ently on  the  eve  of  complete  success,  they  were  always  ultimate- 
ly baffled  by  the  stubborn  bravery  of  the  Dutch,  and  the  heroism 
of  their  great  leader,  William  of  Orange.  Wlien  he  bocame  King 
of  England,  the  power  of  tliis  country  was  thrown  decidedly  into 
the  scale  against  France  ;  but  though  the  contest  was  thus  ren 
dered  less  unequal,  though  William  acted  throughout  "  with  in- 
vincible firmness,  like  a  patriot  and  a  hero,"t  France  had  the 
general  superiority  in  every  war  and  in  every  treaty  ;  and  the 
commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century  found  the  last  league, 
against  her  dissolved,  all  the  forces  of  the  confederates  against 
her  dispersed,  and  many  disbanded ;  while  France  continued 
armed,  with  her  veteran  forces  by  sea  and  land  increased,  and 
lield  in  readiness  to  act  on  all  sides,  whenever  the  opportunity 
should  arise  for  seizing  on  the  great  prizes  which,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  reign,  had  never  been  lost  sight  of  by  her  king. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  any  narrative  of  the  first  essay  which 
Louis  XIV.  made  of  his  power  in  the  war  of  1667  ;  of  his  rapid 
conquest  of  Flanders  and  Franche-Comte  ;  of  the  treaty  of  Aix- 
la  Chapelle,  which  "  was  nothing  more  than  a  composition  be- 
tweei:  the  bully  and  the  bullied  ;"$  of  his  attack  on  Holland  ia 
1672  ;  of  the  districts  and  barrier  towns  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, which  A\'ere  secureu  to  him  by  the  treaty  of  Nimeguen  in 
1678  ;  of  how,  after  this  treaty,  he  "continued  to  vex  both  Spain 
and  the  empire,  and  to  extend  his  conquests  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tiios  and  on  the  Rhine,  both  by  the  pen  and  the  sword;  how  he 
took  Luxembourg  by  force,  stole  Strasburg,  and  bought  Casal ;" 
of  how  the  league  of  Augsburg  was  formed  against  him  in  1686, 
and  the  election  of  William  of  Orange  to  the  English  throne  is 

•  Bolingbroke,  vol.  ii.,  p.  418  t  Ibid.,  p.  404.  t  Ibid.,  p.  39\i. 


BATTLE      )  F     li  L  i:  N  11  E  I  ; I.  27  1 

1 688  gave  a  new  spirit  to  tlie  opposition  which  France  enc^unl 
k'red  ;  ol"  the  long  and  checkered  war  that  followed,  in  which  tl;e 
French  armies  were  generally  victorious  on  the  Continent,  though 
his  fleet  was  beaten  at  La  Hogue,  and  his  dependent,  James  II., 
was  defeated  at  the  Boyne  ;  or  of  the  treaty  of  RysM'ick,  which 
left  France  in  possession  of  Roussillon,  Artois,  and  Strasburg, 
which  gave  Europe  no  security  against  her  claims  on  the  Span- 
ish succession,  and  which  Louis  regarded  as  a  mere  truce,  to  gain 
breathing-time  before  a  more  decisive  struggle.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  ambition  of  Louis  in  these  wars  was  two-fjld 
It  had  its  immediate  and  its  ulterior  objects.  Its  immediate  ob 
ject  was  to  conquer  and  annex  to  France  the  neighboring  prov- 
inces and  towms  that  were  most  convenient  for  the  increase  of 
her  strength  ;  but  the  ulterior  object  of  Louis,  from  the  time  of 
his  marriage  to  the  Spanish  Infanta  in  1659,  was  to  acquire  for 
the  house  of  Bourbon  the  whole  empire  of  Spain.  A  formal  re- 
nunciation of  all  right  to  the  Spanish  succession  had  been  made 
at  the  time  of  the  marriage  ;  but  such  renunciations  were  never 
of  any  practical  efi'ect,  and  many  casuists  and  jurists  of  the  age 
even  held  them  to  be  intrinsically  void.  As  the  time  passed  on, 
and  the  prospect  of  Charles  II.  of  Spain  dying  without  lineal  heirs 
became  more  and  more  certain,  so  did  the  claims  of  the  house  of 
Bourbon  to  the  Spanish  crown  after  his  death  become  matters  of 
urgent  interest  to  French  ambition  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the 
other  powers  of  Europe  on  the  other.  At  length  the  unhappy 
King  of  Spain  died.  By  his  will  he  appointed  Philip,  duke  of 
Anjou,  one  of  Louis  XIV. 's  grandsons,  to  succeed  him  on  the 
throne  of  Spain,  and  strictly  forbade  any  partition  of  his  domin- 
ions. Louis  well  knew^  that  a  general  European  Avar  would  fol- 
low if  he  accepted  for  his  house  the  crown  thus  bequeathed.  But 
he  had  been  preparing  for  this  crisis  throughout  his  reign.  He 
Bent  his  grandson  into  Spain  as  King  Philip  V.  of  that  country, 
addressing  to  him,  on  his  departure,  the  memorable  words,  "  There 
are  no  longer  any  Pyrenees." 

The  empire,  which  now  received  the  grandson  of  Louis  as  its 
king,  comprised,  besides  Spain  itself,  the  strongest  part  of  the 
Netherlands,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  Naples,  the  principality  of  Milan, 
(ind  other  possessions  in  Paly,  the  Philippines  and  Manilla  Isl- 
ands in  Asia,  and  in  the  New  World,  besides  California  av) 
Florida    the  greatest  part  of  Central  and  of  Southern  Ame''*' 


272  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM 

Philip  was  well  received  in  Madrid,  where  he  was  crowned  aa 
King  Philip  V.  in  the  beginning  of  1701.  The  distant  portions 
of  his  empire  sent  in  their  adhesion  ;  and  the  house  of  Bourbon, 
either  by  its  French  or  Spanish  troops,  now  had  occupation  both 
of  the  kingdom  of  Francis  I.,  and  of  the  fairest  and  amplest  por- 
tions of  the  empire  of  the  great  rival  of  Francis,  Charles  V. 

Loud  was  the  wrath  of  Austria,  whose  princes  were  the  rival 
cjairaants  of  the  Bourbons  for  the  empire  of  Spain.  The  indig- 
nation of  our  William  III.,  though  not  equally  loud,  was  far  more 
deep  and  energetic.  By  his  exertions,  a  league  against  the  house 
of  Bourbon  was  formed  between  England,  Holland,  and  the  Aus- 
trian emperor,  which  was  subsequently  joined  by  the  Kings  of 
Portugal  and  Prussia,  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  by  Denmark. 
Indeed,  the  alarm  throughout  Europe  was  nov/  general  and  ur- 
gent. It  was  evident  that  Louis  aimed  at  consolidating  France 
and  the  Spanish  dominions  into  one  preponderating  empire.  At 
the  moment  when  Philip  was  departing  to  take  possession  of 
Spain,  Louis  had  issued  letters-patent  in  his  favor  to  the  effect 
of  preserving  his  rights  to  the  thrjne  of  France.  And  Louis  had 
himself  obtained  possession  of  thij  important  frontier  of  the  Span 
ish  Netherlands  with  its  numeious  fortified  cities,  which  were 
given  up  to  his  troops  under  pretense  of  securing  them  for  the 
young  King  of  Spain.  Whether  the  formal  union  of  the  two 
crowns  was  likely  to  take  place  speedily  or  not,  it  was  evident 
that  the  resources  of  the  whole  Spanish  monarchy  were  now 
virtually  at  the  French  king's  disposal. 

The  peril  that  seemed  to  menace  the  empire,  England,  Hol- 
land, and  the  other  independent  powers,  is  well  summed  up  by 
Alison.  "  Spain  had  threatened  the  liberties  of  Europe  in  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  France  had  all  but  overthrown 
them  in  the  close  of  the  seventeenth.  What  hope  was  there  of 
their  being  able  to  make  head  against  them  both,  united  under 
•uch  a  monarch  as  Louis  XIV.  ?"* 

Our  knowledge  of  the  decayed  state  into  wliich  the  Spanish 
power  had  fallen  ought  not  to  make  us  regard  their  alarms  as  chi- 
merical. Spain  possessed  enormous  resources,  and  her  strength 
was  capable  ol  being  regenerated  by  a  vigorous  ruler.  We  should 
remember  what  Alberoni  efi'ected  even  after  the  close  of  the  war 
nf  Succession.  By  what  that  minister  did  in  a  few  years,  we  may 
♦  "Military  History  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,"  p.  3S. 


BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM.  273 

judge  what  Louis  XIV.  would  have  done  in  restoring  the  mari' 
time  and  military  power  of  that  great  country,  which  nature  had 
6o  largely  gifted,  and  which  man's  misgovernment  has  so  de- 
based. 

The  death  of  King  William,  on  the  8th  of  March,  1702,  a. 
first  seemed  likely  to  paralyze  the  league  against  France  ;  "for. 
notwithstanding  the  ill  success  with  which  he  made  war  gener- 
ally, he  was  looked  upon  as  the  sole  centre  of  union  that  could 
keep  together  the  great  confederacy  then  forming  ;  and  how 
much  the  French  feared  from  his  life  had  appeared  a  few  years 
before,  in  the  extravagant  wpi  indecent  joy  they  expressed  on  a 
false  report  of  his  death.  ^%.  short  time  showed  how  vain  the 
fears  of  some,  and  the  hopes  of  others  were."*  dueen  Anne, 
M'ithin  three  days  after  her  accession,  went  down  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  there  declared  her  resolution  to  support  the  meas- 
ures planned  by  her  predecessor,  who  had  been  "  the  great  sup- 
port, not  only  of  these  kingdoms,  but  of  all  Europe."  Anne  was 
married  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  and  by  her  accession  to 
the  English  throne  the  confederacy  against  Louis  obtained  the  aid 
3f  the  troops  of  Denmark  ;  but  Anne's  strong  attachment  to  one 
of  her  female  friends  led  to  far  more  imjwrtant  advantages  to  the 
anti-Gallican  confederacy  than  the  acquisition  of  many  armies, 
for  it  gave  them  Marlborough  as  their  captain  general. 

There  are  few  successful  commanders  on  whom  Fame  hM 
shone  so  unwillingly  as  upon  John  Churchill,  duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough, prince  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  victor  of  Blenheim, 
Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet,  captor  of  Liege,  Bonn, 
Limburg,  Landau,  Ghent,  Bruges,  Antwerp,  Oudenarde,  Ostend, 
Menin,  Dendermonde,  Ath,  Lille,  Toui'uay,  Mons,  Douay,  Aire, 
Bethune,  and  Bouchain  ;  who  never  fought  a  battle  that  he  did 
not  win,  and  never  besieged  a  place  that  he  did  not  take.  Marl- 
borough's own  character  is  the  cause  of  this.  Military  gloi-y 
may,  and  too  often  does,  dazzle  both  contemporaries  and  poster- 
ity, until  the  crimes  as  well  as  the  vices  of  heroes  are  forgotten. 
But  even  a  few  stains  of  personal  meanness  will  dim  a  soldier's 
raputation  irreparably  ;  and  Marlborough's  faults  were  of  a  pe- 
culiarly base  and  mean  order.  Our  feelings  toward  historical 
personages  are  in  this  respect  like  our  feelings  toward  private 
a;C(4uaiutances.  There  are  actions  of  that  shabby  nature,  that, 
*  Bolingbroke,  vdl.  ii.,  p.  445. 
M2 


274  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM. 

Iio^^ever  uiucli  they  may  be  outweighed  by  a  man's  gov)il  ileeiia 
on  a  general  estimate  of  his  character,  we  never  can  feel  any 
cordial  liking  for  tht  person  w^ho  has  once  been  guilty  of  them 
Thus,  with  respect  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  it  goes  against 
our  feelings  to  admire  the  man  who  owed  his  first  advancement 
in  life  to  the  court  favor  which  he  and  his  family  acquired 
througli  his  sister  becoming  one  of  the  mistresses  of  the  Duke  of 
York.  It  is  repulsive  to  know  that  Marlborough  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  his  wealth  by  being  the  paid  lover  of  one  of  the  fail 
and  frail  favorites  of  Charles  II.*  His  treachery,  and  his  in- 
gratitude to  his  patron  and  benefactor,  James  II.,  stand  out  in 
dark  relief  even  in  that  age  of  thankless  perfidy.  He  was  al- 
most equally  disloyal  to  his  new  master,  King  William  ;  and  a 
more  un-English  act  can  not  be  recorded  than  Godolphin's  and 
Marlborough's  betrayal  to  the  French  court  in  1694  of  the  ex- 
pedition then  designed  against  Brest,  a  piece  of  treachery  which 
caused  some  hundreds  of  English  soldiers  and  sailors  to  be  help- 
lessly slaughtered  on  the  beach  in  Cameret  Bay. 

It  is,  hoAvever,  only  in  his  military  career  that  we  have  now  to 
consider  him  ;  and  there  are  very  few  generals,  of  either  ancient 
or  modern  times,  whose  campaigns  will  bear  a  comparison  with 
those  of  Marlborough,  either  for  the  masterly  skill  with  which 
they  were  planned,  or  for  the  bold  yet  prudent  energy  with 
which  each  plan  was  carried  into  execution.  Marlborough  had 
served  while  young  under  Turenne,  and  had  obtained  the  mark- 
ed praise  of  that  great  tactician.  It  would  be  difficult,  indeed, 
to  name  a  single  quality  which  a  general  ought  to  have,  and 
with  which  Marlborougli  was  not  eminently  gifted.  What  prin- 
cipally attracted  the  notice  of  contemporaries  was  the  impertui'b- 
able  evenness  of  his  sj)irit.      Voltairef  says  of  him, 

"  He  had,  to  a  degree  above  all  other  generals  of  his  tim(5, 
that  calm  courage  in  the  midst  of  tumult,  that  serenity  of  soul 
iu  danger,  wliich  the  English  call  a  cool  head  [que  les  Anglaia 
u.pi)ellent  cold  head,  tcte  froide\,  and  it  was,  perhaps,  tliis  qiuil- 
ity,  the  greatest  gift  of  nature  for  connnand,  which  formerly  gavo 

*  Ma  Ihoroiigh  miglil  plcnd  tlio  pxatrijilr  of  Sylla  in  tliis.  Compare  tin 
RTiocdote  in  Plutarch  about  Sylla  wlien  youn;^  and  Nicopolis,  kowt/;  fisv, 
ti'Ttopov  6e  7iivaf^of,  and  tlie  anecdote  ahont  Marllmroui,'!!  and  the  Duchess 
«f Oeveland,  told  hy  Lord  Chesterfield,  and  cited  in  Macaulay's  "  Histo 
rj,"  vol.  :.,!>.  461.  t  "Siecle  de  Louis  Quatorze." 


BATTLE      OF     BLENIIKIM.  273 

tne  English  so  many  advantages  over  the  French  in  the  plains 
of  Cres.fy,  Poictiers,  and  Agincourt." 

King  William's  knowledge  of  Marll. trough's  high  abilities, 
'hough  he  knew  his  faithlessness  equally  well,  is  said  to  have 
caused  that  sovereign  in  his  last  illness  to  recommend  Marlbor- 
ough to  his  successor  as  the  fittest  person  to  command  her  ai 
miss  ;  but  Marlborougli's  favor  with  the  new  queen,  by  means 
of  liis  wife,  was  so  high,  that  he  was  certain  of  obtaining  the 
highest  employment ;  and  the  war  against  Louis  op*  ned  to  him 
a  glorious  theatre  for  the  display  of  those  military  talents,  which 
he  had  previously  only  had  an  opportunity  of  exercising  in  a  sub- 
ordinate character,  and  on  far  less  conspicuous  scenes. 

He  was  not  only  made  captain  general  of  the  English  forces 
at  home  and  abroad,  but  such  was  the  authority  of  England  in 
the  council  of  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  Marlborough  was  so 
skilled  in  winning  golden  opinions  from  all  whom  he  met  with, 
that,  on  his  reaching  the  Hague,  he  was  received  with  trans- 
ports of  joy  by  the  Dutch,  and  it  was  agreed  by  the  heads  of 
that  repubhc,  and  the  minister  of  the  emperor,  that  Marlborough 
should  have  the  chief  command  of  all  the  allied  armies. 

It  must,  indeed,  in  justice  to  Marlborough,  be  borne  in  mind, 
that  mere  military  skill  was  by  no  means  all  that  was  required 
of  him  in  this  arduous  and  invidious  station.  Had  it  not  been 
for  his  unrivaled  patience  and  sweetness  of  temper,  and  his  mar- 
velous ability  in  discerning  the  character  of  those  whom  he  had 
to  act  with,  his  intuitive  perception  of  those  Avho  were  to  be 
thoroughly  trusted,  and  of  those  who  were  to  be  amused  with 
the  mere  semblance  of  respect  and  confidence  ;  had  not  Marl- 
borough possessed  and  employed,  while  at  the  head  of  the  allied 
armies,  all  the  qualifications  of  a  polished  courtier  and  a  great 
statesman,  he  never  would  have  led  the  allied  armies  to  the 
Danube.  The  confederacy  would  not  have  held  together  for  a 
single  year.  His  great  political  adversary,  Bolingbrokc,  dors 
him  ample  justice  here.  Bolingbroke,  after  referring  to  the  loss 
which  King  William's  death  seemed  to  infiict  on  the  causp  of 
the  allies,  observes  that,  "  By  his  death  the  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough was  raised  to  the  head  of  the  aimy,  and,  indeed,  of  the  con- 
federacy ;  where  he,  a  new,  a  private  man,  a  subject,  acquired 
by  merit  and  by  management  a  more  deciding  influence  than 
\iigh  birth,  coufij-med  authoring,  and  even  the  crown  of  Great 


276  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM. 

Britain  had  given  to  King  William.  Not  only  all  the  parts  of 
that  vast  machine,  the  Grand  Alliance,  were  kept  more  compact 
and  entire,  hut  a  more  rapid  and  vigorous  motion  was  given  to 
the  whole ;  and,  instead  of  languishing  and  disastrous  campaigns, 
we  saw  every  scene  of  the  war  full  of  action.  All  those  where 
in  he  appeared,  and  many  of  those  wherein  he  was  not  then  a  a 
actor,  hut  ahettor,  however,  of  their  action,  were  crowned  with 
the  most  triumphant  success. 

"  I  take  with  pleasure  this  oppoitunity  of  doing  justice  to  that 
great  man,  whose  faults  I  knew,  whose  virtues  I  admired  ;  and 
whose  memory,  as  the  greatest  general  and  the  greatest  minister 
that  our  country,  or  perhaps  any  other,  has  produced,  I  honor."* 

War  was  formally  declared  by  the  allies  against  France  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1702.  The  principal  scenes  of  its  operation 
were,  at  first,  Flanders,  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  North  Italy. 
Marlborough  headed  the  allied  troops  in  Flanders  during  the 
first  two  years  of  the  w'ar,  and  took  some  towns  from  the  enemy, 
but  nothing  decisive  occurred.  Nor  did  any  actions  of  import- 
ance take  place  during  this  period  between  the  rival  armies  in 
Italy.  But  in  the  centre  of  that  line  from  north  to  south,  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt  to  the  mouth  of  the  Po,  along  which 
the  war  was^  carried  on,  the  generals  of  Louis  XIV.  acquired 
advantages  iri  1703  which  threatened  one  chief  member  of  the 
Grand  Alliance  with  utter  destruction.  France  had  obtained 
the  important  assistance  of  Bavaria  as  her  confederate  in  the 
war.  The  elector  of  this  powerful  German  state  made  himself 
master  of  the  strong  fortress  of  Ulm,  and  opened  a  communica- 
tion with  the  French  armies  on  the  Upper  Rhine.  By  this  junc- 
tion, the  troops  of  Louis  were  enabled  to  assail  the  emperor  in  the 
very  heart  of  Germany.  In  the  autumn  of  the  year  1703,  the 
combined  armies  of  the  elector  and  French  king  completely  de- 
feated the  Imperialists  in  Bavaria  ;  and  in  the  following  winter 
they  made  themselves  masters  of  the  important  cities  of  Augs- 
burg and  Passau.  Meanwliile  the  French  army  of  the  Upper 
Rhine  and  Moselle  had  beaten  the  allied  armies  opposed  to  them, 
and  taken  Treves  and  Landau.  At  the  same  time,  the  discon- 
tents in  Hungary  with  Austria  again  broke  out  into  open  insur- 
rection, so  as  to  distract  the  attention  and  complete  the  terror  of 
the  emperor  and  his  council  at  Vieima. 

*  Bolingbroke,  vol.  ii.,  p.  446. 


BATTLi;     OF     BLENHEIM.  277 

Louife  XIV.  ordered  the  next  campaign  to  be  comnieMced  by 
his  ti'oops  ou  a  scale  of  grandeur  and  with  a  boldness  of  entei 
prise  such  as  even  Napoleon's  military  schemes  have  seldom 
oqualed.  On  the  extreme  left  of  the  line  of  the  war,  in  the 
Neth.erlands,  the  French  armies  were  to  act  only  on  the  defens 
ive.  The  fortresses  in  the  hands  of  the  French  there  were  so 
many  and  so  strong,  that  no  serious  impression  seemed  likely  to 
be  made  bj  thi-  allies  on  the  French  frontier  in  that  quarter  dur* 
ing  one  campaign,  and  that  one  campaign  was  to  give  France 
such  triumphs  elsewhere  as  would  (it  w^as  hoped)  determine  the 
war.  Large  detachments  were  therefore  to  be  made  from  the 
French  force  in  Flanders,  and  they  were  to  be  led  by  Marshal 
Villeroy  to  the  Moselle  and  Upper  Rhine.  The  French  army 
akeady  in  the  neighborhood  of  those  rivers  was  to  march  under 
Marshal  Tallard  through  the  Black  Forest,  and  join  the  Elector 
of  Bavaria,  and  the  French  troops  that  were  already  with  the 
elector  under  Marshal  Marsin.  Meanwhile  the  French  army  of 
Italy  was  to  advance  through  the  Tyrol  into  Austria,  and  the 
whole  forces  were  to  combine  between  the  Danube  and  the  Inn. 
A  strong  body  of  troops  was  to  be  dispatched  into  Hungar)',  to 
assist  and  organize  the  insurgents  in  that  kingdom  ;  and  the 
French  grand  army  of  the  Danube  was  then  in  collected  and 
irresistible  might  to  march  upon  Vienna,  and  dictate  terms  of 
peace  to  the  emperor.  High  military  genius  was  shown  in  the 
formation  of  this  plan,  but  it  was  met  and  baffled  by  a  genius 
higher  still. 

Marlborough  had  watched,  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  the  prog- 
ress of  the  French  arms  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Bavaria,  and  ht 
saw  the  futility  of  carrying  on  a  war  of  posts  and  sieges  in  Flan- 
ders, while  death-blows  to  the  empire  were  being  dealt  on  the 
Danube.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to  let  the  war  in  Flanders  lan- 
guish for  a  year,  while  he  moved  with  all  the  disposable  forces 
that  he  could  collect  to  the  central  scenes  of  decisive  operations. 
Such  a  march  was  in  itself  difficult ;  but  Marlborough  had,  m  the 
first  instance,  to  overcome  the  still  greater  difficulty  of  obtaining 
the  consent  and  cheerful  co-operation  of  the  allies,  especially  of 
the  Dutch,  whose  frontier  it  was  proposed  thus  to  deprive  of  the 
larger  part  of  the  force  which  had  hitherto  been  its  protection. 
Fortunately,  among  the  many  slothi'ul,  the  many  foolish,  the 
many  timid,  and  the  not  few  treacherous  rulers,  statesmen,  and 


278  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM. 

generals  of  different  nations  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  there 
W(u-e  two  men,  eminent  both  in  ability  and  integrity,  who  entered 
fully  into  Marlborough's  projects,  and  who,  from  the  stations 
M'hich  they  occupied,  were  enabled  materially  to  forward  them. 
One  of  these  was  the  Dutch  statesman  Heinsius,  who  had.  been 
the  cordial  supporter  of  King  "William,  and  who  now,  with  equal 
zeal  and  good  faith,  supported  Marlborough  in  the  councils  of  the 
allies  ;  the  other  was  the  celebrated  general,  Prince  Eugene, 
whom  the  Austrian  cabinet  had  recalled  from  the  Italian  frontier 
to  take  the  command  of  one  of  the  emperor's  armies  in  Germany 
To  these  two  great  men,  and  a  few  more,  Marlborough  commuru- 
cated  his  plan  freely  and  unreservedly  ;  but  to  the  general  coun- 
cils of  his  allies  he  only  disclosed  part  of  his  daring  scheme.  He 
proposed  to  the  Dutch  that  he  should  march  from  Flanders  to 
the  Upper  E-hine  and  Moselle  with  the  British  troops  and  part 
of  the  foreign  auxiliaries,  and  commence  vigorous  operations 
against  the  French  armies  in  that  quarter,  while  General  Auver- 
querque,  with  the  Dutch  and  the  remainder  of  the  auxiliaries, 
maintained  a  defensive  war  in  the  Netherlands.  Having  with 
difficulty  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Dutch  to  this  portion  of  his 
project,  he  exercised  the  same  diplomatic  zeal,  with  the  same  suc- 
cess, in  urging  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  other  princes  of  the  empire, 
to  increase  the  number  of  the  troops  which  they  supplied,  and  to 
post  them  in  places  convenient  for  his  own  intended  movements 
Marlborough  commenced  his  celebrated  march  on  the  19th  oi 
May.  The  army  which  he  was  to  lead  had  been  assembled  by 
his  brother.  General  Churchill,  at  Bedburg,  not  far  from  Maes 
tricht,  on  the  Meuse  :  it  included  sixteen  thousand  English  troops, 
and  consisted  of  fifty-one  battalions  of  foot,  and  ninety-two  squad- 
rons of  horse.  Marlborough  was  to  collect  and  join  with  him  on 
his  march  the  troops  of  Prussia,  Luneburg,  and  Hesse,  quartered 
on  the  Rhine,  and  eleven  Dutch  battalions  that  were  stationed 
at  Rothweil.*  He  had  only  marched  a  single  day,  when  the 
scries  of  interruptions,  complainis,  and  requisitions  from  the  other 
leaders  of  the  allies  began,  lo  which  he  seemed  subjected  thi-ough- 
out  his  enterprise,  and  which  would  have  caused  its  failure  in  the 
hands  of  any  one  not  gifted  with  the  firmness  and  the  exquisite 
temper  of  Marlborough.  One  specimen  of  these  annoyances  and 
■f  Marlborough's  mode  of  dealing  with  them,  may  suffice.  On 
•  Coxe'£  "  L  '"e  of  Marlborough." 


BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM.  li/b 

his  -;\ic«,mpHig  a-t  Kupen  on  the  20th,  he  received  an  express  Iroin 
Auverqiierque  pressing  him  to  halt,  because  Villeroy,  who  coin 
manded  the  French  army  in  Flanders,  had  quitted  the  lines  which 
he  had  been  occujiyiug,  and  crossed  the  Meuse  at  Namur  with 
thirty-six  battalions  and  lorty-five  squadrons,  and  was  threaten- 
lug  the  town  of  Huys.  At  the  same  time  Marlborough  received 
letters  from  the  Margrave  of  Baden  and  Count  Wratislaw,  who 
commanded  the  Imperialist  forces  at  Stollhoffen,  near  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  stating  that  Tallard  had  made  a  movement, 
as  if  intending  to  cross  the  Rhine,  and  urging  liim  to  hasten  his 
march  toward  the  lines  of  Stollhoften.  Marlborough  M'as  not  di- 
verted by  these  applications  from  the  prosecution  of  his  grand  de- 
sign. Conscious  that  the  army  of  Villeroy  would  be  too  much 
reduced  to  undertake  offensive  operations,  by  the  detachments 
which  had  already  been  made  toward  the  Rhine,  and  those  which 
must  ibllow  his  own  march,  he  halted  only  a  day  to  quiet  the 
alarms  of  Auverquerque.  To  satisfy  also  the  margrave,  he  order- 
ed the  troops  of  Hompesch  and  Bulow  to  draw  toward  Philips- 
burg,  though  with  private  injunctions  not  to  proceed  beyond  a 
certain  distance.  He  even  exacted  a  promise  to  the  same  efiect 
from  Count  Wratislaw,  who  at  the  juncture  arrived  at  the  camp 
to  attend  him  during  the  whole  campaign.* 

Marlborough  reached  the  Rhine  at  Coblentz,  where  he  crossed 
that  river,  and  then  marched  along  its  left  bank  to  Broubacb 
and  Mentz.  His  march,  though  rapid,  was  admirably  conduct- 
ed, so  as  to  save  the  troops  from  all  unnecessary  fatigue  ;  ample 
supplies  of  provisions  were  ready,  and  the  most  perfect  discipline 
was  maintained.  By  degrees  Marlborough  obtained  more  re- 
enforcements  from  the  Dutch  and  the  other  confederates,  and  he 
also  was  left  more  at  liberty  by  them  to  follow  his  own  course. 
Indeed,  before  even  a  blow  was  struck,  his  enterprise  had  par- 
alyzed the  enemy,  and  had  materially  relieved  Austria  from  the 
pressure  of  the  war.  Villeroy,  with  his  detachments  from  the 
French  Flemish  army,  was  completely  bewildered  by  Marlbor- 
ough's movements  ;  and,  unable  to  divine  where  it  was  that  the 
English  general  meant  to  strike  liis  blow,  wasted  away  the  early 
part  of  the  summer  between  Flanders  and  the  Moselle  withou; 
pflecting  any  thing. t 

«  Coxe. 

i  '  Marshal  Villeroy,"  sLys  Voltaire,  "  who  had  wished  to  follow  Marl 


880  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEJM 

Marshal  Tallard,  who  comiaarided  forty-fivo  thousand  Frencii 
at  Strasbnrg,  and  who  had  been  destined  by  Louis  to  march  ear- 
ly in  the  year  into  Bavaria,  thought  that  Marlborough's  march 
along  the  Rhine  was  preliminary  to  an  attack  upon  Alsace ;  and 
the  marshal  therefore  kept  his  forty-five  thousand  men  back  in 
order  to  protect  France  in  that  quarter.  Marlborough  skillfully 
encouraged  his  apprehensions,  by  causing  a  bridge  to  be  construct- 
ed across  the  Rhine  at  Philipsburg,  and  by  making  the  Land- 
grave of  Hesse  advance  his  artillery  at  Manheim,  as  if  for  a 
eiege  of  Landau.  Meanwhile  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  and  Mar- 
shal Marsin,  suspecting  that  Marlborough's  design  might  be 
what  it  really  proved  to  be,  forbore  to  press  upon  the  Austrians 
opposed  to  them,  or  to  send  troops  into  Hungary  ;  and  they  kept 
back  so  as  to  secure  their  communications  with  France.  Thus, 
when  Marlborough,  at  the  beginning  of  June,  left  the  Rhine  and 
marched  for  the  Danube,  the  numerous  hostile  armies  were  uu- 
combined,  and  unable  to  check  him. 

"  With  such  skill  and  science  had  this  enterprise  been  concert- 
ed, that  at  the  very  moment  when  it  assumed  a  specific  direc- 
tion, the  enemy  was  no  longer  enabled  to  render  it  abortive.  As 
the  march  was  now  to  be  bent  toward  the  Danube,  notice  was 
given  for  the  Prussians,  Palatines,  and  Hessians,  who  were  sta- 
tioned on  the  Rhine,  to  order  their  march  so  as  to  join  the  main 
body  in  its  progress.  At  the  same  time,  directions  were  sent 
to  accelerate  the  advance  of  the  Danish  auxiliaries,  who  were 
marching  from  the  jSTetherlands."* 

Crossing  the  River  Neckar,  Marlborough  marched  in  a  south' 
eastern  direction  to  Mundelshene,  where  he  had  his  first  personal 
interview  with  Prince  Eugene,  who  was  destined  to  be  his  col- 
league on  so  many  glorious  fields.  Thence,  through  a  difficult 
and  dangerous  country,  Marlborough  continued  his  march  against 
the  Bavarians,  whom  he  encountered  on  the  2d  of  July  on  the 
heights  of  the  Schullenberg,  near  Donauwert.  Marlborough 
Btoimed  their  intrenched  camp,  crossed  the  Danube,  took  several 
Btro'.ig  places  in  Bavaria,  and  made  himself  completely  master 
of  the  alector's  dominions,  except  the  fortified  cities  of  Munich 
and  Augsburg.  But  the  elector's  army,  though  defeated  at  Don- 
borough  on  his  first  marches,  suddenly  lost  sight  of  him  altogether,  ana 
only  learned  where  he  really  was  on  hearing  of  his  victory  at  Donawert." 
Siicle  de  Louis  XIV.  *  Coze. 


BATTLl::     OP     ULENUEIM.  28  J 

auwert,  was  still  numerous  and  strong ;  and  at  last  Marsha] 
Talianl,  when  thoro.ighly  apprised  of  the  real  nature  of  Marl 
borough's  movements,  crossed  the  Rhine ;  and  being  suff'erod, 
through  the  supineness  of  the  German  general  at  StoUhofien,  tc 
march  without  loss  through  the  Black  Forest,  he  united  hie  pow- 
erful army  at  Biberbach,  near  Augsburg,  with  that  of  the  elect- 
or and  the  French  troops  under  Marshal  Marsin,  who  had  pre- 
viiusly  been  co-operating  with  the  Bavarians. 

On  the  other  hand,  IMarlborough  recrossed  the  Danube,  and  on 
the  11th  of  August  united  his  army  with  the  Imperialist  forcea 
under  Prince  Eugene.  The  combined  armies  occupied  a  position 
near  Hochstadt,  a  little  higher  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube 
than  Donauwert,  the  scene  of  Marlborough's  recent  victory,  and 
almost  exactly  on  the  ground  where  Marshal  Villars  and  the 
elector  had  defeated  an  Austrian  army  in  the  preceding  year. 
The  French  marshals  and  the  elector  were  now  in  position  a 
little  farther  to  the  east,  betM'een  Blenheim  and  Lutzingen,  and 
with  the  little  stream  of  the  Nebel  between  them  and  the  troops 
of  Marlborough  and  Eugene.  The  Gallo-Bavarian  army  con- 
sisted of  about  sixty  thousand  men,  and  they  had  sixty-one  pieces 
of  artillery.  The  army  of  the  allies  was  about  fifty-six  thousand 
strong,  with  fifty-two  guns. 

Although  the  French  army  of  Italy  had  been  unable  to  pene- 
trate into  Austria,  and  although  the  masterly  strategy  of  Marl- 
borough had  hitherto  M'arded  ofi'  the  destruction  with  which  the 
cause  of  the  allies  seemed  menaced  at  the  beginning  of  the  cam- 
paign, the  peril  was  still  most  serious.  It  was  absolutely  neces 
sary  for  Marlborough  to  attack  the  enemy  before  Villeroy  should 
be  roused  into  action.  There  was  nothing  to  stop  that  general 
and  his  army  from  marching  into  Franconia,  whence  the  allies 
drew  their  principal  supplies  ;  and  besides  thus  distressing  them, 
he  might,  by  marching  on  and  joining  his  army  to  those  of  Tal- 
lard  and  the  elector,  forin  a  mass  which  would  overwhelm  the 
force  under  Marlborough  and  Eugene.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
ohances  o."  a  battle  seemed  perilous,  and  the  fatal  consequences 
of  a  defeat  were  c<;rtain.  The  disadvantage  of  the  allies  in  point 
of  number  was  not  very  great,  but  still  it  was  not  to  be  disre- 
garded ;  and  the  advantage  which  the  enemy  seemed  to  have  iu 
the  composition  of  their  troops  was  striking.  Tallard  and  Mar 
wn  had  forty  five  thousand  Frenchmen  under  them,  all  veterans 


;J82  BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM 

and  all  trained  to  act  together  :  the  elector's  own  troojis  also  were 
good  soldiers.  Marlborough,  like  Wellington  at  Waterloo,  head- 
ed an  army,  of"  which  the  larger  proportion  consisted  not  of  En- 
ghsli,  but  of  men  of  many  difi'erent  nations  and  many  different 
languages.  He  was  also  obliged  to  be  the  assailant  in  the  ac- 
tion, and  thus  to  expose  his  troops  to  comparatively  hea\^  los 
at  the  commencement  of  the  battle,  while  the  enemy  would  fighi 
tmder  the  protection  of  the  villages  and  lines  which  they  were 
actively  engaged  in  strengthening.  The  consequences  of  a  defeat 
of  the  confederated  army  must  have  broken  up  the  Grand  Alii 
ince,  and  reahzed  the  proudest  hopes  of  the  French  ki»g.  Mr 
Alison,  in  his  admirable  military  history  of  the  Duke  of  Marl 
borough,  has  truly  stated  the  effects  which  would  have  taken 
place  if  France  had  been  successful  in  the  war  ;  and  when  the 
position  of  the  confederates  at  the  time  when  Blenheim  waa 
fought  is  remembered — when  we  recollect  the  exhaustion  of 
Austria,  the  menacing  insurrection  of  Hungary,  the  feuds  and 
jealousies  of  the  German  princes,  the  strength  and  activity  of 
the  Jacobite  party  in  England,  and  the  imbecility  of  nearly  all 
the  Dutch  statesmen  of  the  time,  and  the  weakness  of  Holland 
if  deprived  of  her  allies,  we  may  adopt  his  words  in  speculating 
on  what  would  have  ensued  if  France  had  been  victorious  in  the 
battle,  and  "  if  a  power,  animated  by  the  ambition,  guided  by 
the  fanaticism,  and  directed  by  the  ability  of  that  of  Louis  XIV., 
had  gained  the  ascendency  in  Europe.  Beyond  all  question,  a 
universal  despotic  dominion  would  have  been  established  over 
the  bodies,  a  cruel  spiritual  thraldom  over  the  minds  of  men. 
France  and  Spain  united  under  Bourbon  princes  and  in  a  close 
family  alliance — the  empire  of  Charlemagne  with  that  of  Charles 
V. — the  power  which  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  perpe- 
trated the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  with  that  which  ban- 
ished the  Moriscoes  and  established  the  Inquisition,  Avould  have 
proved  irresistible,  and  beyond  examjde  destructive  to  the  best 
iJileiests  of  mankind. 

"The  Protestants  might  have  been  driven,  like  the  pagan  hea- 
Vhcns  of  old  by  the  son  of  Pepin,  beyond  the  Elbe  ;  the  Stuart 
race,  and  with  them  Romish  ascendency,  might  have  been  re-es- 
Iriblislied  in  England  ;  the  fire  lighted  by  Latimer  and  Ridley 
r.-iight  have  been  cxiiiiguished  in  blood  ;  and  the  en;rg)  breatlied 
by  religious  freedom  into  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  might  have  rx- 


BATTLE     OF     B^^ENHCIM.  2i^'d 

pi  red.  The  destinies  of  the  world  would  have  been  changed. 
Europe,  instead  of  a  variety  of  indepnident  states,  whose  mutual 
hostility  kept  alive  courage,  while  their  national  rivalry  stimu- 
lated talent,  would  have  sunk  into  the  slumber  attendant  on  uni- 
versal dominion.  Tlic  colonial  empire  of  England  would  have 
withered  away  and  perished,  as  that  of  Spain  has  done  in  the 
grasp  of  the  Inquisition.  The  Anglo-Saxon  race  would  have  been 
arrested  in  its  mission  to  overspread  the  earth  and  subdue  it.  The 
centralized  despotism  of  the  Roman  empire  would  have  been  re 
newed  on  Continental  Europe  ;  the  chains  of  Romish  tyranny, 
and  with  them  the  general  infidelity  of  France  before  the  Re  /olu- 
tion,  would  have  extinguished  or  perverted  thought  in  the  B:  :tish 
Tslands."* 

Marlborough's  words  at  the  council  of  war,  when  a  battle  waa 
resolved  on,  are  remarkable,  and  they  deserve  recording.  We 
know  them  on  the  authority  of  his  chaplam,  Mr.  (afterward  Bishop) 
Hare,  who  accompanied  him  throughout  the  campaign,  and  in 
whose  journal  the  biographers  of  Marlborough  have  found  many 
of  their  best  materials.  Marlborough's  words  to  the  officers  who 
remonstrated  with  him  on  the  seeming  temerity  of  attacking  the 
enemy  in  their  position  w^ere,  "  I  know  the  danger,  yet  a  battle 
is  absolutely  necessary,  and  I  rely  on  the  bravery  and  discipline 
of  the  troops,  which  will  make  amends  for  our  disadvantages." 
In  the  evening  orders  were  issued  for  a  general  engagement,  and 
received  by  the  army  with  an  alacrity  which  justified  his  confi- 
dence. 

The  French  and  Bavarians  were  posted  behind  a  little  stream 
called  the  Nebel,  which  runs  almost  from  north  to  south  into  the 
Danube  immediately  in  front  of  the  village  of  Blenheim.  The 
Nebel  flows  along  a  little  valley,  and  the  Frencli  occupied  the 
rismg  ground  to  the  west  of  it.  The  village  of  Blenheim  was 
the  extreme  right  of  their  position,  and  the  village  of  Lutzingen, 
about  three  miles  north  of  Blenheim,  formed  their  left.  Beyond 
Lutzingen  are  the  rugged  high  grounds  of  the  Godd  Berg  and 
Eich  Berg,  on  the  skirts  of  which  some  detachments  were  posted, 
BO  as  to  secure  the  Gallo-Bavarian  position  from  being  turned  on 
the  left  flank.  The  Danube  secured  their  right  flank  ;  and  it  was 
only  m  front  that  they  could  be  attacked.  The  villages  of  Bleu- 
heiin  and  Lutzingen  ha  I  been  strongly  palisadoed  and  intren  :hod 
•Alison's     Ij.fe  of  Marlborough  'p   248. 


284  BATTLE     OF     BLENHKIAI. 

Marshal  Tallard,  who  held  the  chief  command,  took  his  statiuB 
at  Blenheim  ;  the  elector  and  Marshal  Marsm  commanded  on 
the  left.  Tallard  garrisoned  Blenheim  with  twenty-six  battalions 
of  French  infantry  and  twelve  squadrons  of  French  cavalry. 
Marsin  and  the  elector  had  twenty-two  battalions  of  infantry  and 
thirty-six  squadrons  of  cavalry  in  front  of  the  village  of  Lutzin- 
gen.  The  centre  was  occupied  by  fourteen  battalions  of  infantry, 
iiicl'iiding  the  celebrated  Irish  brigade.  These  were  posted  in  the 
little  hamlet  of  Oberglau,  which  lies  somewhat  nearer  to  Lutzin- 
gen  than  to  Blenheim.  Eighty  squadrons  of  cavalry  and  seven 
battalions  of  foot  were  ranged  between  Oberglau  and  Blenheim. 
Thus  the  French  position  was  very  strong  at  each  extremity,  but 
was  comparatively  weak  in  the  centre.  Tallard  seems  to  have 
relied  on  the  swampy  state  of  the  part  of  the  valley  that  reach- 
es from  below  Oberglau  to  Blenheim  for  preventing  any  serious 
attack  on  this  part  of  his  line. 

The  army  of  the  allies  was  formed  into  two  great  divisions, 
the  largest  being  commanded  by  the  duke  in  person,  and  being 
destined  to  act  against  Tallard,  while  Prince  Eugene  led  the 
other  division,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  cavalry,  and  was  intend 
ed  to  oppose  the  enemy  under  Marsin  and  the  elector.  As  they 
approached  the  enemy,  Marlborough's  troops  formed  the  left  and 
the  centre,  while  Eugene's  formed  the  right  of  the  entire  army. 
Early  in  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  August,  the  allies  left  their 
own  camp  and  marched  toward  the  enemy.  A  thick  haze  cov- 
ered the  ground,  and  it  was  not  until  the  allied  right  and  centre 
had  advanced  nearly  within  cannon  shot  of  the  enemy  that  Tal- 
lard was  aware  of  their  approach.  He  made  his  preparationa 
with  what  haste  he  could,  and  about  eight  o'clock  a  heavy  fire  of 
artillery  was  opened  from  the  French  right  on  the  advancing  left 
wing  of  the  British.  Marlborough  ordered  up  some  of  his  bat- 
teries to  reply  to  it,  and  while  the  columns  that  were  to  form  the 
allied  left  and  centre  deployed,  and  took  up  their  proper  stations 
in  the  line,  a  warm  cannonade  was  kept  up  by  the  guns  on  both 
eides. 

The  ground  which  Eugene's  columns  had  to  traverse  was  pe- 
culiarly difficult,  especially  for  the  passage  of  the  artillery,  and 
It  was  nearly  mid-day  before  he  could  get  his  troops  into  line  op- 
potite  to  Lutzingen.  During  this  interval,  Marlboiougli  ordered 
divine  service  to  be  performed  by  the  chaplains  at  the  head  of 


BATTLE     OF     BLENHEIM.  2bt» 

»ach  regiment,  and  then  rode  along  the  lines,  and  found  both  offi 
cers  and  men  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  waiting  impatiently  for 
the  signal  for  the  attack.  At  length  an  aide-de-camp  galloped 
up  from  the  right  with  the  welcome  news  that  Eugene  was  ready, 
Marlborough  instantly  sent  Lord  Cutts,  Avith  a  strong  brigade  of 
infantry,  to  assault  the  village  of  Blenheim,  while  he  himself  led 
the  main  body  down  the  eastward  slope  of  the  valley  of  the  Ne 
bel,  and  prepared  to  effect  the  passage  of  the  stream. 

The  assault  oi\  Blenheim,  though  bravely  made,  was  repulsed 
with  severe  loss  ,  and  Marlborough,  finding  how  strongly  that 
village  was  garrisoned,  desisted  from  any  farther  attempts  to 
carry  it,  and  bent  all  his  energies  to  breaking  the  enemy's  line 
between  Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  Some  temporary  bridges  had 
been  prepared,  and  planks  and  fascines  had  been  collected  ;  and 
by  the  aid  of  these,  and  a  little  stone  bridge  which  crossed  the 
Kebel,  near  a  hamlet  called  Unterglau,  that  lay  in  the  centre  of 
the  valley,  Marlborough  succeeded  in  getting  several  squadrons 
across  the  Nebel,  though  it  was  divided  into  several  branches, 
and  the  ground  between  them  was  soft,  and,  in  places,  little  bet- 
ter than  a  mere  marsh.  But  the  French  artillery  was  not  idle. 
The  cannon  balls  plunged  incessantly  among  the  advancing 
squadrons  of  the  allies,  and  bodies  of  French  cavalry  rode  fre- 
quently down  from  the  western  ridge,  to  charge  them  before  they 
had  time  to  form  on  the  finn  ground.  It  was  only  by  support- 
ing his  men  by  fresh  troops,  and  by  bringing  up  infantry,  who 
checked  the  advance  of  the  enemy's  horse  by  their  steady  fire, 
that  Marlborough  was  able  to  save  his  army  in  this  quarter  from 
a  repulse,  which,  succeeding  the  failure  of  the  attack  upon  Blen- 
heim, would  probably  have  been  fatal  to  the  allies.  By  degrees, 
his  cavalry  struggled  over  the  blood-stained  streams  ;  the  infantry 
w^ere  also  now  brought  across,  so  as  to  keep  in  check  the  French 
troops  who  held  Blenheim,  and  who,  when  no  longer  assailed  in 
front,  had  begim  to  attack  the  allies  on  their  left  with  consider- 
able effect. 

Marlborough  had  thus  at  last  succeeded  in  drawing  up  the 
•whole  left  wdng  of  his  army  beyond  the  Nebel,  and  was  about 
to  press  forward  with  it,  when  he  w^as  called  away  to  another 
part  of  the  field  by  a  disaster  that  had  befallen  his  centre.  The 
Prince  of  Holstein  Beck  had,  with  eleven  Hanoverian  battalions, 
passed  the  Nebel  opposite  to  Oberglau,  when  he  was  charged  and 


4JS6  BATTLE     Ol      BLENHEIM. 

Utterly  routed  b}  the  Irish  brigade  which  held  that  village  The 
Irish  drove  the  Hanoverians  back  with  heavy  slaughter,  broke 
completely  through  the  line  of  the  allies,  and  nearly  achieved  a 
success  as  brilliant  as  that  which  the  same  brigade  afterward 
gained  at  Fontenoy.  But  at  Blenheim  their  ardor  in  pursuit  led 
them  too  far.  Marlborough  came  up  in  person,  and  dashed  in 
upon  the  exposed  flank  of  the  brigade  Avith  some  squadrons  of 
Br'tish  cavaliy.  The  Irish  reeled  back,  and  as  they  strove  to 
regain  the  height  of  Oberglau,  their  column  was  raked  through 
and  tlirough  by  the  fire  of  three  battalions  of  the  allies,  which 
Marlborough  had  summoned  up  from  the  reserve.  Marlborough 
having  re-established  the  order  and  communications  of  the  allies 
in  this  quarter,  now,  as  he  returned  to  his  own  left  wing,  sent  tc 
learn  how  his  colleague  fared  against  Marsin  and  the  elector, 
and  to  inform  Eugene  of  his  own  success. 

Eugene  had  hitherto  not  been  equally  fortunate.  He  had 
made  three  attacks  on  the  enemy  opposed  to  him,  and  had  been 
thrice  driven  back.  It  was  only  by  his  own  desperate  personal 
exertions,  and  the  remarkable  steadiness  of  the  regiments  of 
Prussian  infantry  which  were  under  him,  that  he  was  to  save 
his  wing  from  being  totally  defeated.  But  it  was  on  the  southerr 
part  of  the  battle-field,  on  the  ground  which  Marlborough  had 
won  beyond  the  Nebel  with  such  difficulty,  that  the  crisis  of  the 
battle  was  to  be  decided. 

Like  Hannibal,  Marlborough  relied  principally  on  his  cavalry 
for  achieving  his  decisive  successes,  and  it  was  by  his  cavalry 
that  Blenheim,  the  greatest  of  his  victories,  was  won.  The  bat- 
tle had  lasted  till  five  in  the  afternoon.  Marlborough  had  now 
eight  thousand  horsemen  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  and  in  the  most 
perfect  order  for  a  general  attack  on  the  enemy's  line  along  the 
space  between  Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  The  infantry  was  drawn 
up  in  battalions  in  their  rear,  so  as  to  support  them  if  repulsed, 
and  to  k'."ep  in  check  the  large  masses  of  the  French  that  still 
occupied  the  village  of  Blenheim.  Tallard  now  interlaced  hia 
Bqui^drons  of  cavalry  with  battalions  of  infantrj  ,  and  Marlbor- 
ough, by  a  corresponding  movement,  brought  several  regiments 
of  infantry,  and  some  pieces  of  artillery,  to  his  front  line  at  inter- 
vals between  the  bodies  of  horse.  A  little  after  five,  Marlbor- 
ough commenced  the  decisive  movement,  and  the  allied  cavalry, 
Btrengthenod  and  supported  by  foot  and  guns,  advancerl  slowly 


BATTLIC     OF     3LEMIiiXM.  2S7 

from  the  lower  ground  near  the  Nebel  up  the  slope  to  where  the 
French  cavalry,  ten  thousand  strong,  awaited  them.  On  riding 
over  the  summit  of  the  acclivity,  the  allies  were  received  with 
60  hot  a  (ire  from  the  French  artillery  and  small  arms,  that  at 
first  the  cavalry  recoiled,  but  without  abandoning  the  high  ground. 
The  guns  and  the  infantry  M'hich  they  had  brought  with  them 
raaintained  the  contest  with  spirit  and  efibct.  The  French  fire 
seemed  to  slacken.  Marlborough  instantly  ordered  a  charge 
along  the  hue.  The  allied  cavalry  galloped  forward  at  the  ene- 
my's squadrons,  and  the  hearts  of  the  French  horsemen  failed 
them.  Discharging  their  carbines  at  an  idle  distance,  they 
wheeled  round  and  spurred  from  the  field,  leaving  the  nine  in- 
fantry battalions  of  their  comrades  to  be  ridden  down  by  the  tor- 
rent of  the  allied  cavalry.  The  battle  was  now  won.  Tallard 
and  Margin,  severed  from  each  other,  thought  only  of  retrea* 
Tallard  drew  up  the  squadrons  of  horse  that  he  had  left,  in  a  line 
extended  toward  Blenheim,  and  sent  orders  to  the  infantry  in  that 
village  to  leave  it  and  join  him  without  delay.  But,  long  ere  his 
orders  could  be  obeyed,  the  conquering  squadrons  of  Marlborough 
had  wheeled  to  the  left  and  thundered  down  on  the  feeble  array 
of  the  French  marshal.  Part  of  the  force  which  Tallard  had 
drawn  up  for  this  last  effort  was  driven  into  the  Danube  ;  part 
fled  with  their  general  to  the  village  of  Sonderheim,  where  they 
were  soon  surrounded  by  the  victorious  allies,  and  compelled  to 
surrender.  Meanwhile,  Eugene  had  renewed  his  attack  upon 
the  Gallo-Bavarian  left,  and  Marsin,  finding  his  colleague  utterly 
routed,  and  his  own  right  flank  uncovered,  prepared  to  retreat. 
He  aud  the  elector  succeeded  in  withdrawing  a  considerable  part 
of  tlicir  troops  in  tolerable  order  to  Dillingen  ;  but  the  large  body 
of  French  who  garrisoned  Blenheim  were  left  exposed  to  certain 
destruction.  Marlborough  speedily  occupied  all  the  outlets  from 
the  village  with  his  victorious  ti'oops,  and  then,  collecting  his  ar- 
tilleiy  round  it,  he  commenced  a  cannonade  that  speedily  would 
have  destroyed  Blenheim  itself  and  all  who  were  in  it.  After 
several  gallant  but  unsuccessful  attempts  to  cut  their  way  through 
the  allies,  the  French  in  Blenheim  were  at  length  compelled  to 
surrender  at  discretion  ;  and  twenty-four  battalions  and  twelve 
squadrons,  with  all  their  officers,  hiid  down  their  arms,  and  be- 
came the  captives  of  Marlborough. 

"Such,"  says  Voltaire,  "was  the  celeb -ated  battle  (vhioh  the 


2^S  SYNOPSIS     OF     EVENTS,     ETC. 

French  call  the  battle  of  Hochstet,  the  Germans  Plenthe^m,  aad 
the  English  Blenheim.  The  conquerors  had  about  five  thou- 
sand killed  and  eight  thousand  wounded,  the  greater  part  beiig 
on  the  side  ol  Prince  Eugene.  The  French  army  was  almost  en- 
tirely destroyed  :  of  sixty  thousand  men,  so  long  victorious,  theie 
never  reassembled  more  than  twenty  thousand  eflective.  Atcnit 
twelve  thousand  killed,  fourteen  thousand  prisoners,  all  the  can- 
non a  prodigious  number  of  colors  and  standards,  all  the  tents 
and  equipages,  the  general  of  the  army,  and  one  thousand  two 
hundred  officers  of  mark  in  the  power  of  the  conqueror,  signal- 
ized that  day  !" 

Ulm,  Landau,  Treves,  and  Traerbach  surrendered  to  the  allita 
before  the  close  of  the  year.  Bavaria  submitted  to  the  emperor, 
and  the  Hungarians  laid  down  their  arms.  Germany  was  com- 
pletely delivered  from  France,  and  the  military  ascendency  of 
the  arms  of  the  allies  was  completely  established.  Throughout 
the  rest  of  the  war  Louis  fought  only  in  defense.  Blenheim  had 
dissipated  forever  his  once  proud  visions  of  almost  universal  con- 
quest. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Blenheim,  A..D 
1704,  AND  the  Battle  of  Pultowa,  A.D.  1709. 

A.D.  1705.  The  Archduke  Charles  lands  in  Spain  with  a 
small  English  army  under  Lord  Peterborough,  who  takes  Barce* 
lona. 

1706.  Marlborough's  victory  at  Ramillies. 

1707.  The  English  army  ir  Spain  is  defeated  at  the  battle  of 
^manza. 

1708.  Marlborough's  victory  at  Oudenarde. 


BATTLE     OF     PULTCWA  ZP9 


CHAPTER  XII. 

rHE    BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA,  A.D.   17(.  9. 

Dread  Pultowa's  day, 
When  fortune  left  the  royal  Swede, 
Around  a  slaughtered  army  lay, 

No  more  to  combat  and  to  bleed. 
The  power  and  fortune  of  the  war 
Had  passed  to  tiie  triumphant  Czar. 

Byron. 

Napp  ION  prophesied,  at  St.  Helena,  that  all  Europe  would 
Boon  be  "-Uher  Cossack  or  Republican.  Three  years  ago,  the  ful 
tlUment  of  the  last  of  these  alternatives  appeared  most  probable 
But  the  democratic  movements  of  1848  were  sternly  repressed 
in  1849.  The  absolute  authority  of  a  single  niler,  and  the  aus- 
tere stillness  of  martial  law,  are  now  paramount  in  the  capitals 
of  the  Continent,  which  lately  owned  no  sovereignty  save  the 
will  of  the  multitude,  and  where  that  which  the  Democrat  calls 
his  sacred  right  of  insurrection  was  so  loudly  asserted  and  so 
often  fiercely  enforced.  Many  causes  have  contributed  to  bring 
about  this  reaction,  but  the  most  effective  and  the  most  perma- 
nent have  been  Russian  influence  and  Russian  arms.  Russia 
:s  now  the  avowed  and  acknowledged  champion  of  monarchy 
.igainst  democracy  ;  of  constituted  autliority,  however  acquired, 
Against  revolution  and  change,  for  whatever  purpose  desired  ;  of 
the  imperial  supreirtaey  of  strong  states  over  their  weaker  neigh- 
bors against  all  claims  for  political  independence  and  all  strivings 
ibr  separate  nationality.  She  had  crushed  the  heroic  Hungari- 
ins  ;  and  Austria,  ior  whom  nominally  she  crushed  them,  is  now 
oi^e  of  her  dependents.  Whether  the  rumors  of  her  being  about 
to  engage  in  fresh  enterprises  be  well  or  ill  founded,  it  is  certain 
that  recent  events  must  have  fearfully  augmented  the  power  of 
the  Muscovite  empire,  which,  even  previously,  had  been  the  ob- 
ject of  well-founded  anxiety  to  all  Western  Europe. 

It  war!  truly  stated,  eleven  years  ago,  that  "  the  acquisitions 
vrhich  Russia  has  made  within  the  [thenj  last  sixty-four  year* 

N 


t'90  B.A.rT];.E    OF    pultowa. 

are  equal  in  extent  and  importance  to  the  whole  empire  she  hiil 
in  Europe  before  that  time  ;  that  the  acquisitions  she  has  made 
from  Sweden  ar3  greater  than  what  remains  of  that  ancient 
kingdom  ;  that  her  acquisitions  from  Poland  are  as  large  as  the 
whole  Austrian  empire  ;  that  the  territory  she  has  wrested  from 
Tuikey  in  Europe  is  equal  to  the  dominions  of  Prussia,  exclusive 
of  her  E.henish  provinces  ;  and  that  her  acquisitions  from  Turkey 
in  Asia  are  equal  in  extent  to  all  the  smaller  states  of  Germany, 
the  Rhenish  provinces  of  Prussia,  Belgium,  and  Holland  taken  to- 
gether ;  that  the  country  she  has  conquered  from  Persia  is  about 
the  size  of  England  ;  that  her  acquisitions  in  Tartary  have  an 
area  equal  to  Turkey  in  Europe,  Greece,  Italy,  and  Spain.  In 
sixty-four  years  she  has  advanced  her  frontier  eight  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  toward  Vienna,  Berlin,  Dresden,  Munich,  and  Paris ; 
•■he  has  approached  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  nearer  to  Con- 
itantinople  ;  she  has  possessed  herself  of  the  capital  of  Poland, 
and  has  advanced  to  within  a  few  miles  of  the  capital  of  Swe- 
den, from  which,  when  Peter  the  First  mounted  the  throne,  her 
frontier  was  distant  three  hundred  miles.  Since  that  time  sho 
has  stretched  herself  forward  about  one  thousand  miles  toward 
India,  and  the  same  distance  toward  the  capital  of  Persia."* 

Such,  at  that  period,  had  been  the  recent  aggrandizement  of 
Russia  ;  and  the  events  of  the  last  few  years,  by  weakening  and 
disuniting  all  her  European  neighbors,  have  immeasurably  aug- 
mented the  relative  superiority  of  the  Muscovite  empire  over  all 
the  other  Continental  powers. 

With  a  population  exceeding  sixty  millions,  all  implicitly  obey 
mg  the  impulse  of  a  single  ruling  mind  ;  with  a  territorial  area  of 
six  millions  and  a  half  of  square  miles  ;  M'ith  a  standing  army 
eight  hundred  thousand  strong  ;  with  powerful  fleets  on  the  Baltic 
and  Black  Seas  ;  with  a  skillful  host  of  diplomatic  agents  plant- 
ed in  every  court  and  among  every  tribe  ;  with  the  confidence 
which  unexpected  success  creates,  and  the  sagacity  which  long 
sxperience  fosters,  Russia  now  grasps,  with  an  armed  right  hand, 
the  langled  thread  of  European  politics,  and  issues  her  mandates 
as  the  arbitress  of  the  movements  of  the  age.  Yet  a  century  aw] 
a  half  have  hardly  elapsed  since  she  was  first  recognized  as  a 
member  of  the  drama  of  modern  European  history — previous  U 
the  batUe  of  Pultowa,  Russia  ])layed  no  part.  Charles  V.  and 
'   "Progress  of  Russia  in  the  East,"  p.  142. 


BATTLE     OF     PUI.TOWA.  291 

his  svL'xi  lival,  our  Elizabeth  and  her  adversary  Philip  ol' Spain. 
the  Guises,  Sully,  Richelieu,  Cromwell,  De  Witt,  William  of  Or 
auge,  and  the  other  leading  spirits  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  thought  no  more  about  the  Muscovite  Czar  than 
we  now  think  about  the  King  of  Timbuctoo.  Even  as  late  aa 
1735,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  in  his  admirable  "  Letters  on  History,'' 
speaks  of  the  history  of  the  Muscovites  as  having  no  relation  to 
the  knowledge  which  a  practical  English  statesman  ought  to  ac- 
quire.* It  may  be  doubted  whether  a  cabinet  council  often  takes 
place  now  in  our  Foreign  Office  without  Russia  being  uppermost 
•n  every  English  statesman's  thoughts. 

But,  though  Russia  remained  thus  long  unheeded  among  her 
snows,  there  vas  a  Northern  power,  the  influence  of  which  was 
acknowledged  in  the  principal  European  quarrels,  and  whose  good 
will  was  sedulously  courted  by  many  of  the  boldest  chiefs  and 
ablest  counselors  of  the  leading  states.  This  was  Sweden  ;  Swe- 
den, on  whose  ruins  Russia  has  risen,  but  whose  ascendency  over 
her  semi-barbarous  neighbor  was  complete,  until  the  fatal  battio 
that  now  forms  our  subject. 

As  early  as  1542  France  had  sought  the  alliance  of  Sweden 
to  aid  her  in  her  struggle  against  Charles  V.  And  the  name  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  remind  us  that  in  the 
great  contest  for  religious  liberty,  of  which  Germany  was  for  thirty 
years  the  arena,  it  was  Sweden  that  rescued  the  falling  cause  of 
Protestantism,  and  it  was  Sweden  that  principally  dictated  the 
remodeling  of  the  European  state-system  at  the  peace  of  West- 
phalia. 

From  the  proud  pre-eminence  in  which  the  valor  of  the  "  Lion 
of  the  North,"  and  of  Torstenston,  Bannier,  Wrangel,  and  the 
other  generals  of  Gustavus,  guided  by  the  wi.sdom  of  Oxenstiern, 
had  placed  Sweden,  the  defeat  af  Charles  XIL  at  Pultowa  hurled 
hei  down  at  once  and  forever.  Her  efl()rts  during  the  wars  of 
thi  French  Revolution  to  assume  a  leading  part  in  European 
p'litics  met  wi<h  instant  discomfiture,  and  almost  provoked  deri- 
ei«>n  But  the  Sweden  whose  sceptre  was  bequeathed  to  Chris- 
tina, and  M'hosi  alliance  Cromwell  valued  so  highly,  was  a  dif- 
ferent power  to  the  Sweden  of  the  present  dav.  Finland,  In- 
gria,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  Carelia,  and  other  districts  east  of  the 

'  Bolinjjhmke's  Works,  vol  ii.,  p.  374.  In  the  same  page  he  observei 
how.  Sweden  had  oflen  turned  her  arms  southward  with  prudigious  efTet't 


292  BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA 

Haltie,  then  wore  Swedish  provinces  ;  and  the  possession  ot  Ptiiiifv 
rania,  E-iigen,  and  Bremen  made  her  an  important  memher  of  th« 
Germanic  empire.  These  territories  are  now  all  reft  from  her, 
and  the  most  valuahle  of  them  form  the  staple  of  her  victcrioua 
rival's  strength.  Could  she  resume  them — could  the  Sweden  of 
1648  be  reconstructed,  we  should  have  a  first-class  Scandinavian 
Btate  in  the  North,  well  qualified  to  maintain  the  balance  oi 
power,  and  check  the  progress  of  Russia ;  whose  power,  indeed, 
never  could  have  become  form.idable  to  Europe  save  by  Sweden 
becoming  weak. 

The  decisive  triumph  of  Russia  over  Sweden  at  Pultowa  was 
therefore  all-important  to  the  world,  on  account  of  what  it  over- 
threw as  well  as  for  what  it  established  ;  and  it  is  the  more 
deeply  interesting,  because  it  M^as  not  merely  the  crisis  of  a  strug 
gle  between  two  states,  but  it  was  a  trial  of  strength  between  two 
great  races  of  mankind.  We  must  bear  in  mind,  that  while  the 
Swedes,  like  the  English,  the  Dutch,  and  others,  belong  to  the 
Gemianic  race,  the  Russians  are  a  Sclavonic  people.  Nations 
of  SclaA^onian  origin  have  long  occupied  the  greater  part  of  Eu- 
rope eastward  of  the  Vistula,  and  the  populations  also  of  Bo- 
hemia, Croatia,  Servia,  Dalmatia,  and  other  important  regions, 
westward  of  that  river  are  Sclavonic.  In  the  long  and  varied 
conflicts  between  them  and  the  Germanic  nations  that  adjoin 
them,  the  Germanic  race  had,  before  Pultowa,  almost  always 
maintained  a  superiority.  With  the  single  but  important  excep- 
tion of  Poland,  no  Sclavonic  state  had  made  any  considerable 
figure  in  history  before  the  time  when  Peter  the  Great  won  his 
great  victory  over  the  Swedish  king.*  What  Russia  has  done 
since  that  time  we  know  and  we  feel.  And  some  of  the  wisest 
and  best  men  of  our  own  age  and  nations,  who  have  watched 
with  deepest  care  the  annals  and  the  destinies  of  humanity,  have 
belifeved  that  the  Sclavonic  element  in  the  population  of  Europe 
has  as  yet  only  partially  developed  its  powers  ;  that,  while  other 
races  of  mankind  (our  own,  the  Germanic,  included)  have  exhaust- 
ed their  creative  energies  and  completed  their  allotted  achieve 
ments,  the  Sclavonic  race  has  yet  a  great  career  to  run  ;  and  thai 
the  narrative  of  Sclavonic  ascendency  is  the  remaining  page  liiat 
will  conchule  the  history  of  tlie  world. t 

*  The  Hussite  wars  may,  perhaps,  entitle  Bohemia  to  be  diBtingiiished 
t  Sec  Arnold's  "  Lectures  on  Modern  History,"  p.  36-39 


BATTLE     U  i'     1'  L  L  T  U  W  «.  'J^'j3 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  in  thus  regarding  the  piinuiry  tri- 
uni])h  of"  Russia  over  Sweden  as  a  victory  of  the  Sclavonic  ovei 
tlic  Germanic  race,  we  are  dealing  with  matters  of  mere  eth- 
nological pedantry,  or  with  themes  of  mere  speculative  curiosity. 
The  fact  that  Russia  is  a  Sclavonic  empire  is  a  fact  of  immense 
practical  influence  at  the  present  moment.  Half  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Austrian  empire  are  Sclavonians.  The  population  of  the 
larger  part  of  Turkey  in  Europe  is  of  the  same  race.  Silesia, 
Posen,  and  other  parts  of  the  Prussian  dominions  are  principally 
Sclavonic.  And  during  late  years,  an  enthusiastic  zeal  for  blend- 
ing all  Sclavonians  into  one  great  united  Sclavonic  empire  has 
been  growing  up  in  these  countries,  w'hich,  however  we  may  deride 
its  principle,  is  not  the  less  real  and  active,  and  of  which  Russia^ 
as  the  head  and  the  champion  of  the  Sclavonic  race,  knows  well 
how  to  take  her  advantage.* 

*  "The  idea  ofPanslavism  had  a  purely  literary  origin.  It  was  slari 
fid  by  Kollar,  a  Protestant  clergyman  of  the  Sclavonic  congregation  at 
Pesth,  in  Hungary,  who  wished  to  establish  a  national  literature  by  cir- 
culating all  works,  written  in  the  various  Sclavonic  dialects,  through  ev 
cry  country  where  any  of  them  are  spoken.  He  suggested  that  all  the 
Sclavonic  literati  should  become  acquainted  with  the  sister  dialects,  so 
that  a  Bohemian,  or  other  work,  might  be  read  on  the  shores  of  the  Adri- 
atic as  well  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Volga,  or  any  other  place  where  'i 
Sclavonic  language  was  spoken  ;  by  which  moans  an  extensive  literature 
might  be  created,  tending  to  advance  knowledge  in  all  Sclavonic  coun- 
tries ;  and  he  supported  his  arguments  by  observing  that  the  dialects  of 
ancient  Greece  differed  from  each  other  like  those  of  his  own  lan^juage, 
and  yet  that  they  formed  only  one  Hellenic  literature.  The  idea  of  an  in- 
tellectual union  of  all  those  nations  naturally  led  to  that  of  a  political  one  ; 
and  the  Sclavonians,  seeing  that  their  numbers  amounted  to  about  one 
tliird  part  of  the  whole  population  of  Europe,  and  occupied  more  than  half 
Its  territory,  began  to  be  sensible  that  they  might  claim  for  themselves  a 
position  to  which  they  had  not  hitherto  aspired. 

"The  opinion  gained  ground;  and  the  question  now  is,  whether  the 
Sclavonians  can  form  a  nation  independent  of  Russia,  or  whether  they 
ought  to  rest  satisfied  in  being  part  of  one  great  race,  with  the  most  pow- 
erful member  of  it  as  ibcir  chief.  The  latter,  indeed,  is  gaining  ground 
among  them  ;  and  some  Poles  are  disposed  to  attribute  their  sufferings  to 
the  arbitrary  will  of  the  Czar,  without  extending  the  blame  to  the  Rus- 
sians themselves.  These  begin  to  thiidc  that,  if  ibey  can  not  exist  aa 
Poles,  the  best  thing  to  be  done  is  to  rest  saii.sfieo  wiih  a  position  in  the 
.'^clavo^i<•  empire,  and  they  hope  that,  when  once  they  give  up  the  idea 
af  restoring  their  country,  Russia  ma}  grant  some  concessions  to  the  J 
tepirate  nationality. 


294  BATTLE     OF     PULTOWa.. 

It  is  a  sinf;;u]ar  fact  that  Russia  owes  her  very  name  to  a  band 
of  Swedish  invaders  who  conquered  her  a  thousand  years  ago. 
They  were  soon  absorbed  in  the  Sclavonic  population,  and  every 
trace  of  th.'::  Swedish  character  had  disappeared  in  Russia  foi 
many  centums  before  her  invasion  by  Charles  XII.  She  waa 
lon^*  the  victim  and  the  slave  of  the  Tartars  ;  and  for  many  con- 
siderable periods  of  years  the  Poles  held  her  in  subjugation.  In 
deed,  if  we  except  the  expeditions  of  some  of  the  early  Russian 
chiefs  against  Byzantium,  and  the  reign  of  Ivan  Vasilovitch,  the 
history  of  Russia  before  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  is  one  long 
♦ale  of  suffering  and  degradation. 

But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  amount  of  national  injuries 
that  she  sustained  from  Swede,  from  Tartar,  or  from  Pole  in  the 
ages  of  her  weakness,  she  has  certainly  retaliated  ten-fold  during 
the  century  and  a  half  of  her  strength.  Her  rapid  transition  at 
the  commencement  of  that  period  from  being  the  prey  of  every 
conqueror  to  being  the  conqueror  of  all  with  whom  she  comes 
into  contact,  to  being  the  oppressor  instead  of  the  oppressed,  is 
almost  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations.  It  was  the 
work  of  a  single  ruler  ;  who,  himself  without  education,  pro- 
moted science  and  literature  among  barbaric  millions  ;  who  gave 
them  fleets,  commerce,  arts,  and  arms  ;  who,  at  Pultowa,  taught 
them  to  face  and  beat  the  previously  invincible  Swedes  ;  and  who 
made  stubborn  valor  and  implicit  subordination  from  that  time 
forth  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Russian  soldiery, 
which  had  before  his  time  been  a  mere  disorderly  and  irresolute 
rabble. 

The  career  of  Philip  of  Macedon  resembles  most  nearly  that 
of  the  great  Muscovite  Czar  ;  but  there  is  this  important  differ- 
ence, that  Philip  had,  while  young,  received  in  Southern  Greece 
the  best  education  in  all  matters  of  p^ace  and  war  that  the  ablest 
philosophers  and  generals  of  the  age  could  bestow.  Peter  M'as 
brought  up  among  barbarians  and  in  barbai-ic  ignorance.  He 
strove  to  remedy  this,  when  a  grown  man,  by  leaving  all  the 
♦cmplations  to  idleness  and  sensuality  which  his  court  offered,  and 

"  The  same  iciea  has  been  put  forward  by  writers  in  the  Russian  inter- 
est ;  great  efTorts  are  mai<iiiiT  among  other  Sclavonic  people  to  induce  theiio 
to  Iwok  upon  Russia  as  llieir  future  head,  and  she  has  already  gained  con 
Biderablc  influence  over  the  Sclavonic  populations  of  Turkey." — Wii.kiv 
foif's  Dalmatia. 


BATTLE     OF     PI7LTOWA.  293 

by  seeking  inttruction  abroad.  He  labored  with  his  own  hands 
as  a  common  artisan  in  Holland  and  England,  that  he  might  re- 
turn and  teach  his  subjecis  how  ships,  eonunerce,  and  civiliza- 
tion could  be  acquired.  There  is  a  degree  of  heroism  here  supe- 
rior to  any  thing  that  we  know  of  in  the  Macedonian  king.  But 
Philip'i  consolidation  of  the  long-disunite(l  Macedonian  empire  ; 
his  raising  a  people,  which  he  found  the  scorn  of  their  civilized 
Southern  neighbors,  to  be  their  dread  ;  his  organization  of  a  brave 
and  well-disciplined  army  instead  of  a  disorderly  militia  ;  his  cre- 
ation of  a  maritime  lorce,  and  his  systematic  skill  in  acquiring 
and  improving  sea- ports  and  arsenals  ;  his  patient  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose under  reverses ;  his  personal  bravery,  and  even  his  prone- 
ness  to  coarse  amusements  and  pleasures,  all  mark  him  out  aa 
the  prototype  of  the  imperial  founder  of  the  Russian  power.  In 
justice,  however,  to  the  ancient  hero,  it  ought  to  be  added,  that 
we  find  in  the  history  of  Philip  no  examples  of  that  savage  cru- 
elty which  deforms  so  grievously  the  character  of  Peter  the  Great. 
In  considering  the  effects  of  the  overthrow  which  the  Swedish 
arms  sustained  at  Pultowa,  and  in  speculating  on  the  probable 
consequences  that  would  have  followed  if  the  invaders  had  been 
successful,  we  must  not  only  bear  in  mind  the  wretched  state  in 
which  Peter  found  Russia  at  his  accession,  compared  with  her 
present  grandeur,  but  we  must  also  keep  in  view  the  fact  that, 
at  the  time  vi'hen  Pultowa  was  fought,  his  reforms  were  yet  in- 
complete, and  his  new  institutions  immature.  He  had  broken  up 
'.he  Old  Russia  ;  and  the  New  Russia,  which  he  ultimately  cre- 
ated, was  still  in  embryo.  Had  he  been  crushed  at  Pultowa,  his 
immense  labors  would  have  been  buried  with  him,  and  (to  use 
the  words  of  Voltaire)  "  the  most  extensive  empire  in  the  world 
would  have  relapsed  into  the  chaos  from  which  it  had  been  so 
lately  taken."  It  is  this  fact  that  makes  the  repulse  of  Charles 
XII.  the  critical  point  in  the  fortunes  of  Russia.  The  danger 
which  she  incurred  a  century  afterward  from  her  invasion  by 
Napoleon  was  in  reality  far  less  than  her  peril  when  Charles  at- 
tacked her,  though  the  French  emperor,  as  a  military  genius,  was 
infinitely  superior  to  the  Swedish  king,  and  led  a  host  against  her, 
compared  with  which  the  armies  of  Charles  seem  almost  insig- 
nificant. But,  as  Fouche  well  warned  his  imperial  master,  whcr 
be  vainly  eiuleavored  to  dissuade  him  from  his  disastrous  expe- 
dition against  the  empire  of  the  Czars,  the  difl'erence  between  th« 


2S6  BATTLE     OF     PULTOWA. 

Russia  of  1812  and  the  Russia  of  1709  was  greater  than  ihe  di» 
parity  between  the  power  of  Charles  and  the  might  of  Napoleon 
"  If  that  heroic  king,"  said  Fouche,  "  had  not,  like  your  imperial 
majesty,  half  Europe  in  arms  to  hack  him,  neitlier  had  his  op- 
ponent, the  Czar  Peter,  400,000  soldiers  and  50,000  Cossacks." 
The  historians  who  describe  the  state  of  the  Muscovite  empire 
when  revolutionary  and  imperial  France  encountered  it,  narrate 
vith  truth  aui  justice  how,  "  at  the  epoch  of  ths  French  Revolu- 
tion, this  immense  empire,  comprehending  nearly  lialf  of  Europe 
and  Asia  within  its  dominions,  inhabited  by  a  patient  and  indom- 
itable race,  ever  ready  to  exchange  the  luxury  and  adventure  of 
the  South  for  the  hardships  and  monotony  of  the  North,  was  daily 
becoming  more  formidable  to  the  liberties  of  Europe.  *  *  The 
Russian  infantry  had  then  long  been  celebrated  for  its  immovable 
firmness.  Her  immense  population,  amounting  then  in  Europe 
alone  to  nearly  thirty-five  millions,  afforded  an  inexhaustible  sup 
ply  of  men.  Her  soldiers,  inured  to  heat  and  cold  from  their  in- 
fancy, and  actuated  by  a  blind  devotion  to  their  Czar,  united  the 
steady  valor  of  the  English  to  the  impetuous  energy  of  the  French 
troops."*  So,  also,  we  read  how  the  haughty  aggressions  of  Bona- 
parte "  went  to  excite  a  national  feeling  from  the  banks  of  the 
Boi-ysthenes  to  the  wall  of  China,  and  to  unite  against  him  the 
wild  and  uncivilized  inhabitants  of  an  extended  empire,  possessed 
by  a  love  to  their  religion,  their  government,  and  their  country, 
and  having  a  character  of  stern  devotion,  Avhich  he  was  incap- 
able of  estimating. "t  But  the  Russia  of  1709  had  no  such  forces 
to  oppose  to  an  assailant.  Her  whole  population  then  was  below 
sixteen  millions  ;  and,  what  is  far  more  important,  this  popula- 
tion had  neither  acquired  military  spirit  nor  strong  nationality, 
nor  was  it  united  in  loyal  attachment  to  its  ruler. 

Peter  had  wisely  abolished  the  old  regular  troops  of  the  em- 
pire, the  Strelitzes  ;  but  the  forces  which  he  had  raised  in  their 
6t3ad  on  a  new  and  foreign  plan,  and  principally  officered  with 
f(>reigners,  had,  before  the  Swedish  invasion,  given  no  proof  that 
they  could  be  relied  on.  In  numerous  encounters  with  the  Swedes, 
Peter's  soldiery  had  run  like  sheep  before  inferior  numbers.  Great 
discontent,  also,  had  been  excited  avnong  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity by  the  arbitrary  changes  which  their  great  emperor  in- 
troduced, many  of  which  clashed  with  tht  most  cherished  na 

•  Alison.  t  Scott's  "Life  of  Napoleon." 


UATTLli     UF     PULTOWA.  Z3 1 

Uonal  prejudices  of  his  subjects.  A  career  of  victory  and  pros- 
perity had  not  yet  raised  Peter  above  the  reach  of  that  disaffec- 
tion, nor  had  stijierstitious  obedience  to  the  Czar  yet  become  the 
characteristic  of  the  Muscovite  mind.  The  victorious  occupation 
of  Moscow  by  Charles  XII.  would  liave  quelled  the  Russian  na- 
tion as  effectually,  as  had  been  the  case  when  Batou  Khan,  and 
other  ancient  invaders,  captured  the  capital  of  primitive  Muscovy. 
How  liltlj  such  a  triumph  could  effect  toward  subduing  mod- 
L'rn  Russia  the  fate  of  Napoleon  demonstrated  at  once  and  for 
3ver. 

The  charactei  of  Charles  XII.  has  been  a  favorite  theme  with 
nistorians,  morahsts,  philosophers,  and  poets.  But  it  is  his  mili- 
tary conduct  during  the  campaign  in  Russia  that  alone  requires 
comment  here.  Napoleon,  in  the  Memoirs  dictated  by  him  at 
St.  Helena,  has  given  us  a  systematic  criticism  on  that,  among 
other  celebrated  campaigns,  his  own  Russian  campaign  included. 
He  labors  hard  to  prove  that  he  himself  observed  all  the  true 
principles  of  offensive  war ;  and  probably  his  censures  on  Charles's 
generalship  Avere  rather  highly  colored,  for  the  sake  of  making 
his  own  military  skill  stand  out  in  more  favorable  relief.  Yet, 
after  making  all  allowances,  we  must  admit  the  force  of  Napo- 
leon's strictures  on  Charles's  tactics,  and  own  that  his  judgment, 
though  severe,  is  correct,  when  he  pronounces  that  the  Swedish 
king,  unlike  his  great  predecessor  Gustavus,  knew  nothing  of  the 
art  of  war,  and  was  nothing  more  than  a  brave  and  intrepid  sol- 
dier. Such,  however,  was  not  the  light  in  which  Charles  waa 
regarded  by  his  contemporaries  at  the  commencement  of  his  Rus- 
sian expedition.  His  numerous  victories,  his  daring  and  resolute 
spirit,  combined  with  the  ancient  renown  of  the  Swedish  arms, 
then  filled  all  Europe  with  admiration  and  anxiety.  As  John- 
son expresses  it,  his  name  was  then  one  at  which  the  world  grew 
pale.  Even  Louis  le  Grand  earnestly  solicited  his  assistance  ; 
and  our  own  Marlborough,  then  in  the  full  career  of  his  victories, 
was  specially  sent  by  the  English  court  to  the  camp  of  Charles, 
to  propitiate  the  hero  of  the  North  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  the 
alius,  and  to  prevent  the  Sv/edish  sword  from  being  flung  into 
the  scale  in  the  French  king's  favor.  But  Charles  at  that  time 
was  solely  bent  on  dethroning  the  sovereign  of  Russia,  as  he  had 
already  doihroned  the  sovereign  of  Poland,  and  all  Europe  fully 
behoved  that  he  would  entirely  crush  the  Czar,  and  dictate  con 


jyS  L  A  T  T  L  i;     OF     P  U  L  T  O  W  A. 

ditioi's  of  peace  in  the  Kremlin.*  Charles  himself  looked  on  tucv 
cess  as  a  matter  of  certainty,  and  the  romantic  extravagance  oi 
his  views  was  continually  increasing.  "  One  year,  he  thought; 
would  suffice  for  the  conquest  of  Russia.  The  court  of  R.ome 
was  next  to  f(!el  his  vengeance,  as  the  pope  had  dared  to  oppose 
the  concession  of  religious  liberty  to  the  Sil  .vsian  Protestants.  No 
enterprise  at  that  time  appeared  impossible  to  him.  He  had  even 
dispatched  several  officers  privately  into  Asia  and  Egypt,  to  tak"«i 
plans  of  the  towns,  and  examine  into  the  strength  and  resources 
of  those  countries."! 

Napoleon  thus  epitomizes  the  earlier  operations  of  Charles's 
invasion  of  Russia  : 

"  That  prince  set  out  from  his  camp  at  Aldstadt,  near  Leipsic, 
in  September,  1707,  at  the  head  of  45,000  men,  and  traversed 
Poland  ;  20,000  men,  under  Count  Lewenhaupt,  disembarked  at 
Riga  ;  and  15,000  were  in  Finland.  He  was  therefore  in  a  con- 
dition to  have  brought  together  80,000  of  the  best  troops  in  the 
world.  He  left  10,000  men  at  Warsaw  to  guard  King  Stanis- 
laus, and  in  January,  1708,  arrived  at  Grodno,  where  he  win- 
tered. In  June,  he  crossed  the  forest  of  Minsk,  and  presented 
himself  before  Borisov  ;  forced  the  Russian  army,  which  occu- 
pied the  left  bank  of  the  Beresina  ;  defeated  20,000  Russians  who 
were  strongly  intrenched  behind  marshes  ;  passed  the  Borysthenea 
at  Mohilov,  and  vanquished  a  corps  of  16,000  Muscovites  near 
omolensko  on  the  22d  of  September.  He  was  now  advanced  to 
the  confines  of  Lithuania,  and  was  about  to  enter  Russia  Proper  : 
the  Czar,  alarmed  at  his  approach,  made  him  proposals  of  peace. 
Up  to  this  time  all  his  movements  were  conform-abie  to  rule,  and 
his  communications  were  well  secured.  He  was  master  of  Poland 
and  Riga,  and  only  ten  days'  march  distant  from  Moscow  ;  and 
it  is  probable  that  he  would  have  reached  that  capital,  had  he 
u'-t  quitted  the  high  road  thither,  and  directed  his  steps  toward 
the  Ukraine,  in  order  to  form  a  junction  with  Mazeppa,  who 
brought  him  only  6000  men.  By  this  movement,  his  line  of  oper- 
ition*^,  beginning  at  Sweden,  exposed  his  flank  to  Russia  for  a 
'istaucc  of  four  hundred  leagues,  and  he  was  unable  to  protect 
t.  or  to  receive  either  re-enforcements  or  assistance." 

•  Voltaire  allesls,  from  personal  inspection  of  the  letters  of  several  pub 
li:  ministeis  to  theii  i  ^spective  courts,  that  such  was  tlie  gcnemi  expccta 
tion.  t  Crightop.'s  "  Scandinavia." 


BAT'TLl:     OF     FULTOWA.  <i99 

Napoleon  severely  censures  this  neglect  of  one  of  the  great 
tules  of  war.  He  points  out  that  Charles  had  not  organized  his 
war,  like  Haiinihal,  on  tha  principle  of  relinquishing  all  cominu- 
uications  with  home,  keeping  all  his  forces  concentrated,  and  cre- 
ating a  base  of  operations  in  the  conquered  country.  Such  had 
been  the  bold  system  of  the  Carthaginian  general ;  but  Charles 
acted  on  no  such  principle,  inasmuch  as  he  caused  Lewenhaupt, 
one  of  his  generals  who  commanded  a  considerable  detachment, 
and  escorted  a  most  important  convoy,  to  follow  him  at  a  distance 
of  twelve  days'  march.  By  this  dislocation  of  his  forces  he  ex- 
posed Lewenhaupt  to  be  overwhelmed  separately  by  the  full  force 
of  the  enemy,  and  deprived  the  troops  under  his  ow'n  command 
of  the  aid  which  that  general's  men  and  stores  might  have  afford- 
ed at  the  very  crisis  of  the  campaign. 

The  Czar  had  collected  an  army  of  about  100,000  effective 
men  ;  and  though  the  Swedes,  in  the  beginning  of  the  invasion, 
were  successful  in  every  encounter,  the  Russian  troops  were  grad- 
ually acquiring  discipline  ;  and  Peter  and  his  officers  were  learn- 
ing generalship  from  their  victors,  as  the  Thebans  of  old  learned 
it  from  the  Spartans.  When  Lewenhaupt,  in  the  October  of 
1708,  was  striving  to  join  Charles  in  the  Ukraine,  *>he  Czar  sud- 
denly attacked  him  near  the  Borysthenes  with  an  overwhelming 
force  of  50,000  Russians.  Lewenhaupt  fought  bravely  for  three 
days,  and  succeeded  in  cutting  his  way  through  the  enemy  with 
a})out  4000  of  his  men  to  where  Charles  awaited  him  near  the 
River  Desna  ;  but  upward  of  8000  Swedes  fell  in  these  bat- 
tles ;  Lewenhaupt's  cannon  and  ammunition  were  abandoned  ; 
and  the  whole  of  his  important  convoy  of  provisions,  on  which 
Charles  and  his  half-starved  troops  were  relying,  fell  into  the 
piiemy's  hands.  Charles  was  compelled  to  remain  in  the  Ukraine 
during  the  winter  ;  but  in  the  spring  of  1709  he  moved  forward 
toward  Moscow,  and  invested  the  fortified  town  of  Pultowa,  on 
the  River  Vorskla ;  a  place  where  the  Czar  had  stored  up  large 
supplies  of  provisions  and  military  stores,  and  which  commanded 
the  passes  leading  toward  Moscow.  The  possession  of  this  place 
would  have  given  Charles  the  means  of  supplying  all  the  wants 
of  his  suflering  army,  and  would  also  have  furnished  him  M'ith 
a  secure  base  of  operations  for  his  advance  against  the  Muscovite 
capital.  The  siege  was  therefore  hotly  pressed  by  the  Swedes  ; 
the  garrison  resisted  obstinately  •  and  the  Czar,  foiling  the  ini 


tot  BAtTLE     OF     PULTOWa. 

portanca  ol  saving  the  town,  advanced  in  June  to  its  reliel,  a 
tue  nead  of  an  army  from  fifty  to  sixty  thousand  strong. 

Both  sovereigns  novs^  prepared  for  the  general  action,  which 
each  saw  to  be  inevitable,  and  which  each  felt  would  be  dec:;siva 
of  his  own  and  oi  his  country's  destiny.  The  Czar,  by  some  inas- 
terly  maiieuvers,  crossed  the  Vor.skla,  and  posted  his  army  on  the 
sams  side  of  that  river  with  the  besiegers,  but  a  little  higher  up. 
The  Vorskla  falls  into  the  Borysthenes  about  fifteen  leagues  be- 
low Pultowa,  and  the  Czar  arranged  his  forces  in  two  lines,  stretch- 
ing from  one  river  toward  the  other,  so  that  if  the  Swedes  at- 
tacked him  and  were  repulsed,  they  would  be  driven  backward 
into  the  acute  angle  formed  by  the  two  streams  at  their  junction. 
He  fortified  these  lines  with  several  redoubts,  lined  with  heavy 
artillery  ;  and  his  troops,  both  horse  and  foot,  were  in  the  best  pos- 
sible condition,  and  amply  provided  with  stores  and  amm\mition. 
Charles's  forces  were  about  24,000  strong.  But  not  more  than 
half  of  these  were  Swedes  :  so  much  had  battle,  famine,  fatigue, 
and  the  deadly  frosts  of  Russia  thinned  the  gallant  bands  which 
the  SAvedish  king  and  Lewenhaupt  had  led  to  the  Ukraine.  The 
other  12,000  men,  under  Charles,  were  Cossacks  and  Wallachians, 
who  had  joined  him  in  the  country.  On  h  ^aring  that  the  Czar 
was  about  to  attack  him,  he  deemed  that  his  dignity  required 
that  he  himself  should  be  the  assailant ;  and,  leading  his  army 
out  of  their  intrenched  lines  before  the  town,  he  advanced  with 
them  against  the  Russian  redoubts. 

He  had  been  severely  wounded  in  the  foot  in  a  skirmish  a  few 
days  before,  and  was  borne  in  a  litter  along  the  ranks  into  the 
thick  of  the  fight.  Notwithstanding  the  fearful  disparity  of  num- 
bers and  disadvantage  of  position,  the  Swedes  never  showed  their 
ancient  valor  more  nobly  than  on  that  dreadful  day.  Nor  do 
their  Cossack  and  Wallachian  allies  seem  to  have  been  unworthy 
of  fighting  side  by  side  with  Charles's  veterans.  Two  of  the  Rus- 
sian redoubts  were  actually  entered,  and  the  Swedish  infantry  be- 
pan  to  raise  the  cry  of  victory.  But,  on  the  other  side,  neither 
fieneral  nor  soldiers  flinched  in  their  duty.  The  Russian  cannon- 
ade and  musketry  were  kept  up  ;  fresh  masses  of  defenders  were 
poured  into  the  I'ortilications,  and  at  length  the  exhausted  rem- 
nants of  the  Swedish  columns  recoiled  from  the  olood-stained  re* 
iloubts.  Then  the  C/.ar  led  the  infantry  and  cavalry  of  his  first 
line  outside  the  works,  drew  them  up  steadily  and  skillfuJy,  aiic 


tIATTLE     OF     PULTOWA.  yO' 

the  actioi'.  was  renewed  along  the  whole  fronts  of  the  two  annies 
on  the  opan  gronnd.  Each  sovereign  exjoosed  his  life  freely  in 
the  world-winning  battle,  and  on  each  side  tha  troops  fought  oh- 
Btinately  and  eagerly  under  their  ruler's  eye.  It  was  not  till  two 
hours  fror:  the  coinniencement  of  the  action  that,  overpowered 
by  nunibeis,  the  hitherto  invincible  Swedes  gave  way.  All  was 
then  hopeless  disorder  and  irreparable  rout.  Driven  downward 
to  where  the  livers  join,  the  fugitive  Swedes  surrendered  to  their 
vidorious  pursuers,  or  perished  in  the  waters  of  the  Boiyslhenes, 
Only  a  few  hundreds  swam  that  river  with  their  king  and  the 
Cossack  Mazeppa,  and  escaped  into  the  Turkish  territory.  Nearly 
10,000  lay  killed  and  wounded  in  the  redoubts  and  on  the  field 
oi  battle. 

In  the  joy  of  his  heart  the  Czar  exclaimed,  when  the  strile 
was  over,  "  That  the  son  of  the  morning  had  fallen  from  heaven, 
and  that  the  foundation  of  St.  Petersburg  at  length  stood  firm." 
Even  on  that  battle-field,  near  the  Ukraine,  the  Russian  empc 
ror's  first  thoughts  were  of  conquests  and  aggrandizement  on  th(< 
Baltic.  The  peace  of  Nystadt,  which  transferred  the  fairest  prov 
inces  of  Sweden  to  Russia,  ratified  the  judgment  of  battle  which 
was  pronounced  at  Pultowa.  Attacks  on  Turkey  and  Persia  by 
Russia  commenced  almost  directly  after  that  victory.  And  though 
the  Czar  failed  in  his  first  attempts  against  the  sultan,  the  suc- 
cessors of  Peter  have,  one  and  all,  carried  on  a  uniformly  aggress- 
ive and  uniformly  successive  system  of  policy  against  Turkey,  and 
against  every  other  slate,  Asiatic  as  well  as  European,  which  has 
had  the  misfortune  of  having  Russia  for  a  neighbor. 

Orators  and  authors,  who  have  discussed  the  progress  of  Icus- 
sia.  have  often  alluded  to  the  similitude  between  the  modern  ex- 
tension of  the  Muscovite  empire  and  the  extension  of  the  Roman 
dominions  in  ancient  times.  But  attention  has  scarcely  been 
drawn  to  the  closeness  of  the  parallel  between  conquering  Rus- 
sia and  conquering  Rome,  not  only  in  the  extent  of  conquests,  but 
in  the  means  of  effecting  conquest.  The  history  of  Rome  during 
the  century  and  a  half  which  followed  the  close  of  the  second 
runic  war,  and  during  which  her  largest  acquisitions  of  territory 
wero  made,  should  be  minutely  compared  with  the  history  of 
Russia  for  the  last  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  main  points 
of  wmilitude  can  only  be  indicated  in  these  pages  ;  but  they  de« 
serve  the  fullest  consideration.      Above  all,  the  sixth  chapter  of 


^{)'4  BATTLE     OF     PULTOVA. 

!VlLntesquieu'&  great  treatise  on  Rome,  "i>e  la  coiiduite  qu<c  lei 
Romains  tinrcnt  jfour  sotwicttre  les  'psuples,''  should  be  care- 
fully studied  by  every  one  who  watches  the  career  and  policy  of 
Russia.  The  classic  scholar  will  remember  the  state-craft  of  thi 
Roman  senate,  which  took  care  in  every  foreign  war  to  appear  iu 
the  character  of  a  Protector.  Thus  Rome  protected  the  iEtoli- 
ans  and  the  Greek  cities  against  Macedon  ;  she  protected  Bithynia 
and  other  small  Asiatic  states  against  the  Syrian  kings  ;  she  pro- 
ieoted  Numidia  against  Carthage  ;  and  in  numerous  other  in- 
fetances  assumed  the  same  specious  character.  But  "  woe  to  the 
people  whose  liberty  depends  on  the  continued  forbearance  of  an 
over-mighty  protector."*  Every  state  which  Rome  protected 
was  ultimately  subjugated  and  absorbed  by  her.  And  Russia  has 
been  the  protector  of  Poland — the  protector  of  the  Crimea — the 
protector  of  Courland — the  protector  of  Georgia,  Immeritia,  Min- 
grelia,  the  Tcherkessian  and  Caucasian  tribes,  &c.  She  has  first 
protected,  and  then  appropriated  them  all.  She  protects  Mol- 
davia and  Wallachia.  A  few  years  ago  she  became  the  protector 
of  Turkey  from  Mehemet  Ali ;  and  since  the  summer  of  1849, 
she  has  made  herself  the  protector  of  Austria. 

When  the  partisans  of  Russia  speak  of  the  disinterestedness 
with  which  she  withdrew  her  protectnig  troops  from  Constanti- 
nople and  from  Hungary,  let  us  here  also  mark  the  ominous  exact- 
ness of  the  parallel  between  her  and  Rome.  While  the  ancient 
world  yet  contained  a  number  of  independent  states,  which  might 
have  made  a  formidable  league  against  Rome  if  she  had  alarmed 
them  by  openly  avowing  her  ambitious  schemes,  Rome's  favorite 
policy  was  seeming  disinterestedness  and  moderation.  After  her 
first  war  against  Philip,  after  that  against  Antiochus,  and  many 
others,  victorious  Rome  promptly  withdrew  her  troops  from  the 
territories  which  they  occupied.  She  allected  to  employ  her  arms 
only  for  the  good  of  others.  But,  when  the  favorable  moment 
came,  she  always  found  a  ])retext  for  marching  her  legions  back 
inio  each  coveted  district,  and  making  it  a  Roman  province. 
Fear,  not  moderation,  is  the  only  eliective  check  on  the  ambition 
01  such  powers  as  ancient  Rome  and  modern  Russia.  Tlie  amount 
of  that  fear  depends  on  the  amount  of  tiiiiely  vigilance  and  en- 
ergy Avhich  other  states  choose  to  employ  against  tl"3  common 
eneij  y  of  their  freedom  and  national  independence. 
*  Malkin's  "  History  of  Greece  ' 


SYNOPSIS     OF     EVKNlrf,     fc;TC.  JOd 

Synops.s  of  Events  betweei^  the  Battle  of  Pultowa,  A.D 
1709,  ANi;  THE  Defeat  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga,  A.D. 
1777. 

A.D.  1713.  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  Philip  is  left  by  it  in  posses- 
sion of  the  throne  of  Spain.  But  Naples,  Milan,  the  Spanish  ter- 
ritories on  the  Tuscan  coast,  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  soma 
parts  of  the  French  Netherlands,  are  given  to  Austria.  France 
cedes  to  England  Hudson's  Bay  and  Straits,  the  island  of  St. 
Christopher,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland  in  America.  Spain 
«edes  to  England  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  which  the  English  had 
taken  during  the  war.  The  King  of  Prussia  and  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  both  obtain  considerable  additions  of  territory  to  their  do- 
minions. 

1715.  Death  of  Q,ueen  Anne.  The  house  of  Hanover  begins 
to  reign  in  England.  A  rebellion  in  favor  of  the  Stuarts  is  put 
.lown.     Death  of  Louis  XIV. 

1718.  Charles  XII.  killed  at  the  siege  of  Frederickshall. 

1725.  Death  of  Peter  the  Great  of  Eussia. 

1740.  Frederic  II.  king  of  Prussia.  He  attacks  the  Austrian 
dominions,  and  conquers  Silesia. 

1742.  War  between  France  and  England 

1743.  Victory  of  the  English  at  Dettingen. 

1745.  Victory  of  the  French  at  Fontenoy.  Rebellion  in  Scot- 
land in  favor  of  the  house  of  Stuart ;  finally  quelled  by  the  bat 
tie  of  Culloden  in  the  next  year. 

1748.  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1756-1763.  The  Seven  Years'  "War,  during  which  Prussia 
makes  an  heroic  resistance  against  the  armies  of  Austiia,  Rus- 
sia, and  France.  England,  under  the  administration  of  the  el- 
der Pitt  (afterward  Lord  Chatham),  takes  a  glorious  part  in  the 
war  in  opposition  to  France  and  Spain.  Wolfe  wins  the  battle 
of  duebec,  and  the  English  conquer  Canada,  Cape  Breton,  and 
St  John.  Clive  begins  his  career  of  conquest  in  India.  Cuba 
is  taken  by  the  English  from  Spain. 

1763.  Treaty  of  Paris  ;  which  leaves  the  power  of  Prussia  in- 
creased, and  its  military  reputation  greatly  exalted. 

"  France,  by  the  treaty  of  Paris,  ceded  to  England  Canada 
ani  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  with  the  islands  and  coasts  of  the 
guii  and  river  of  St.  Lawrence.     The  boundaries  between  tli» 


304  svj.upsis    or    h;vK.NT&,    mtc. 

two  nations  in  North  America  were  fixed  by  a  line  ilraAVii  along 
the  middle  of  the  Missis? ippi,  from  its  source  to  its  mouth.  All 
on  the  left  or  eastern  bank  of  that  river  was  given  up  to  En- 
gland, except  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  which  -was  reserved  to 
France  ;  as  was  also  the  liberty  of  the  fisheries  on  a  part  of  the 
coasts  of  Newfoundland  and  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  isl- 
aiids  uf  St.  Peter  and  Miqueion  were  given  them  as  a  shelter 
for  their  fishermen,  but  Mithoiit  permission  to  raise  fortifications. 
The  islands  of  Martinico,  Guadaloupe,  Mariegalaute,  Desirada, 
and  St.  Lucia,  were  surrendered  to  France  ;  while  Grenada,  the 
Grenadines,  St.  Vincent,  Dominica,  and  Tobago,  were  ceded  to 
England.  This  latter  power  retained  her  conquests  on  the  Sen- 
egal, and  restored  to  France  the  island  of  Gorea,  on  the  coast  of 
Africa.  France  was  put  in  possession  of  the  forts  and  factories 
which  belonged  to  her  in  the  East  Indies,  on  the  coasts  of  Coro- 
mandel,  Orissa,  Malabar,  and  Bengal,  under  the  restriction  of 
keeping  up  no  military  force  in  Bengal. 

"  In  Europe,  France  restored  all  the  conquests  she  had  mada 
in  Germany,  as  also  the  island  of  Minorca.  England  gave  up 
to  her  Belleisle,  on  the  coast  of  Brittany  ;  while  Dunkirk  was 
kept  in  the  same  condition  as  had  been  determined  by  the  peace 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  island  of  Cuba,  with  the  Havana,  wero 
restored  to  the  King  of  Spain,  who,  on  his  part,  ceded  to  En- 
gland Florida,  with  Port  Augustine  and  the  Bay  of  Pensacola. 
The  King  of  Portugal  was  restored  to  the  same  state  in  which 
he  had  been  before  the  war.  The  colony  of  St.  Sacrament  in 
A.merica,  which  the  Spaniards  had  conquered,  was  given  back 
to  him. 

"  The  peace  of  Paris,  of  which  we  have  just  now  spoken,  was 
the  era  of  England's  greatest  prosperity.  Her  commerce  and 
navigation  extended  over  all  parts  of  the  globe,  and  were  sup- 
ported by  a  naval  force,  so  much  the  more  imposing,  as  it  waa 
no  longer  counterbalanced  by  the  maritime  power  of  France, 
which  had  been  almost  annihilated  in  the  preceding  war.  The 
iminense  territories  which  that  peace  had  secured  her,  both  in 
Afri«!a  and  America,  opened  u]»  new  channels  for  her  industry; 
ViU<]  what  deserves  specially  to  be  remarked  is,  that  she  acquired 
at  the  same  ',ime  vast  and  important  possessions  in  the  East  lu- 
dies  * 

*  Koch's  "  Revolutions  of  Europe." 


VICTORY     OF     THE     A  iM  K  R  1  0  A  xN  S,    ETC  3U«i 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ncTcav  OF  the  Americans  over  burgoyT'Ie  a.t  saritoo* 

A.D.  1777. 

"Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way  ; 

The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  Ihe  drama  with  the  day, 

Time's  noblkst  offspring  is  its  last. 

Bishop  Bkrkeley. 

Of  the  four  great  powers  that  now  principally  rule  the  politi' 
cal  destinies  of  the  world,  France  and  Enghind  are  the  only  two 
whose  influence  can  be  dated  back  beyond  the  last  century  and 
a  half  The  third  great  power,  Russia,  was  a  feeble  mass  of 
barbarism  before  the  epoch  of  Peter  the  Great ;  and  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  fourth  great  power,  as  an  independent  nation,  com- 
menced within  the  memory  of  living  men.  By  the  fourth  great 
power  of  the  world  I  mean  the  mighty  commonwealth  of  the 
Western  Continent,  which  now  commands  the  admiration  of 
mankind.  That  homage  is  sometimes  reluctantly  given,  and  is 
sometimes  accompanied  with  suspicion  and  ill  will.  But  none 
can  refuse  it.  All  the  physical  essentials  for  national  strength 
are  undeniably  to  be  found  in  the  geographical  position  and  am- 
plitude of  territory  which  the  United  States  possess  ;  in  their  al- 
most inexhaustible  tracts  of  fertile  but  hitherto  untouched  soil, 
in  their  stately  forests,  in  their  mountain  chains  and  their  rivers, 
their  beds  of  coal,  and  stores  of  metallic  wealth,  in  their  extens- 
ive sea-board  along  the  waters  of  two  oceans,  and  in  their  already 
numerous  and  rapidly-increasing  population.  And  when  we  ex- 
amine the  character  of  this  population,  no  one  can  look  on  the 
fearless  energy,  the  sturdy  determination,  the  aptitude  for  local 
fell-goTcrnment,  the  versatile  alacrity,  and  the  unresting  spirit  of 
tnterprise  which  characterize  the  Anglo-Americans,  without  feel- 
ing that  here  he  beholds  the  true  elements  of  progressive  might. 

Three  quarters  of  a  century  have  not  yet  passed  since  ihr 
United  States  eeasel  to  be  mere  dependencies  of  England.  And 
oven  if  we  date  their  origin  from  the  period  whej  the  first  per- 


3U6  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

manent  European  se;tleruents  out  of  wliich  they  grew  v  tre  tuade 
oil  the  western  coast  of  the  North  Atlantic,  the  increase  of  theii 
strength  is  unparalleled  either  in  rapidity  or  extent. 

The  ancient  Roman  boasted,  with  reason,  of  the  growth  of 
Rome  from  humble  beginnings  to  the  greatest  magnitude  which 
the  world  had  then  ever  witnessed.  But  the  citizen  of  the 
Uix'ted  States  is  still  more  justly  entitled  to  claim  this  praise, 
in  two  centuries  and  a  half  his  country  has  acquired  ampler  do- 
minion than  the  Roman  gained  in  ten.  And  even  if  we  credit 
the  legend  of  the  band  of  shepherds  and  outlaws  with  which 
Romulus  is  said  to  have  colonized  the  Seven  Hills,  we  find  not 
there  so  small  a  germ  of  future  greatness  as  we  find  in  the  group 
of  a  hundred  and  five  ill-chosen  and  disunited  emigrants  who 
founded  Jamestown  in  1607,  or  in  the  scanty  band  of  Pilgrim 
Fathers  who,  a  few  years  later,  moored  their  bark  on  the  wild 
and  rock-bound  coast  of  the  wilderness  that  was  to  become  New 
England.  The  power  of  the  Uidted  States  is  emphatically  the 
"  imperium  quo  neque  ab  exordio  ullum  fere  minus,  neque  incre- 
mentis  toto  orbe  amplius  humana  potest  memoria  reeordari."* 

Nothing  is  more  calculated  to  impress  the  mind  with  a  sense 
of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  resources  of  the  American  repub- 
lic advance,  than  the  difficulty  which  the  historical  inquirer  finds 
in  ascertaining  their  precise  am'ount.  If  he  consults  the  most  re- 
cent works,  and  those  written  by  the  ablest  investigators  of  the 
subject,  he  finds  in  them  admiring  comments  on  the  change 
which  the  last  few  years,  before  those  books  were  written,  had 
made  ;  but  when  he  turns  to  apply  the  estimates  in  those  books 
to  the  present  moment,  he  finds  them  wholly  inadequate.  Be- 
fore a  book  on  the  subject  of  the  United  States  has  lost  its  nov' 
elty,  those  states  have  outgrown  the  descriptions  which  it  coii' 
tains.  The  celebrated  work  of  the  French  statesman,  De  Tocque- 
ville,  appeared  about  fifteen  years  ago.  In  the  passage  which  I 
am  about  to  quote,  it  will  be  seen  that  he  predicts  the  constant 
increase  of  the  Anglo-American  power,  but  he  looks  on  the 
Rocky  Mountains  as  their  extreme  western  limit  for  many  years 
to  come.  He  had  evidsntly  no  expectation  of  himself  seeing  that 
power  dominant  along  the  Pacific  as  well  as  along  the  Atlantic 
coast.     He  says  :t 

♦  E..tro[iius,  lib.  i.,  exordium. 

t  The  original  French  of  these  passages  will  be  found  in  the  chapici 


AT8ARATOUA.  5)7 

"The  dislanje  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ex- 
pends from  the  47th  to  the  30tli  degree  of  latitude,  a  distance  of 
more  than  1200  miles,  as  the  bird  (lies.  The  frontier  of  Ihf. 
United  States  winds  along  the  whole  of  this  immense  line,  some- 
times falling  within  its  limits,  but  more  frequently  extending  far 
beyond  it  into  the  w^aste.  It  has  been  calculated  that  the  whites 
a;lvance  every  year  a  mean  distance  of  seventeen  miles  along 
this  vast  boundary.  Obstacles,  such  as  an  unproductive  district 
a  lake,  or  an  Indian  nation  unexpectedly  encountered,  are  some 
times  met  with.  The  advancing  column  then  halts  for  a  while  ; 
its  two  extremities  fall  back  upon  themselves,  and  as  soon  as  they 
are  reunited,  they  proceed  ouAvard.  This  gradual  and  continu- 
ous progress  of  the  European  race  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains 
has  the  solemnity  of  a  providential  event ;  it  is  like  a  deluge  of 
men  rising  unabatedly,  and  daily  driven  onward  by  the  hand  of 
God. 

"  Within  this  first  line  of  conquering  settlers  towns  are  built 
and  vast  states  founded.  In  1790  there  M^ere  only  a  few  thou- 
sand pioneers  sprinkled  along  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi ;  and 
at  the  present  day,  these  valleys  contain  as  many  inhabitants  aa 
were  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Union  in  1790.  Their  popula- 
tion amounts  to  nearly  four  millions.  The  City  of  Washington 
was  founded  in  1800,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Union  ;  but  such 
are  the  changes  M^hich  have  taken  place,  that  it  now  stands  at 
one  of  the  extremities  ;  and  the  delegates  of  the  most  remote 
Western  States  are  already  obliged  to  perform  a  journey  as  long 
as  that  from  Vienna  to  Paris. 

"  It  must  not,  then,  be  imagined  that  the  impulse  of  the  Brit 
ish  race  in  the  New  World  can  be  arrested.  The  dismember- 
ment of  the  Union,  and  the  hostilities  which  might  ensue,  the 
abolition  of  republican  institutions,  and  the  tyrannical  govern- 
ment which  might  succeed  it,  may  retard  this  impulse,  but  they 
can  not  prevent  it  from  ultimately  fulfilling  the  destinies  to  which 
that  race  is  reserved.  No  power  upon  earth  can  close  upon  the 
emigrants  that  fertile  wilderness,  which  ofiers  resources  to  all  in- 
dustry, and  a  refuge  from  all  want.     Future  events,  of  whatever 

on  "  Quelles  sent  les  chances  de  duree  de  TUnion  Americaine — Quels 
dangers  la  m?nacent,"  in  the  third  volume  of  the  first  part  of  De  Tocque- 
vil  e,  and  in  tiie  conclusion  of  the  first  part.  They  are  (with  ethers)  col 
lectnd  and  translated  hy  Mr.  Alisoi,  in  his  "Essays,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  374 


808  ■»'  I C  T  O  R  Y     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

nature  tliey  may  be,  will  not  deprive  the  Americans  of  tlitir  cli 
mate  cr  of  their  inland  seas,  of  their  great  rivers  or  of  their  exu- 
berant soil.  Nor  will  bad  laws,  revolutions,  and  anarchy  be  able 
to  obliterate  that  love  of  prosperity  and  that  spirit  of  enterprise 
M'hich  seem  to  be  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  their  race,  or 
to  extinguish  that  knowledge  which  guides  them  on  their  way. 

"  Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  uncertain  future,  one  event  at  least 
h  sure.  At  a  period  which  may  be  said  to  be  near  (for  we  are 
ipeaking  of  the  life  of  a  nation),  the  Anglo-Americans  will  alone 
cover  the  immense  space  contained  between  the  Polar  Region? 
and  ths  Tropics,  extending  from  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  the  territory  which  will  probably 
be  occiipied  by  the  Anglo-Americans  at  some  future  time  may 
be  computed  to  equal  three  quarters  of  Europe  in  extent.  The 
climate  of  the  Union  is  upon  the  whole  preferable  to  that  of  Eu- 
rope, and  its  natural  advantages  are  not  less  great ;  it  is  there- 
fore evidont  that  its  population  will  at  some  future  time  be  pro- 
portionate to  our  own.  Europe,  divided  as  it  is  between  so  many 
different  »iations,  and  torn  as  it  has  been  by  incessant  wars  and 
the  barbarous  manners  of  the  Middle  Ages,  has,  notwithstand- 
ing, attained  a  population  of  410  inhabitants  to  the  square  league. 
What  causv'.  can  prevent  the  United  States  from  having  as  nu- 
merous a  population  in  time  ? 

"  The  time  will  therefore  come  when  one  hundred  and  firty 
millions  of  n.on  will  be  living  in  North  America,  equal  in  con- 
dition, the  progeny  of  one  race,  owing  their  origin  to  the  same 
cause,  and  pre^srving  the  same  civilization,  the  same  language, 
the  same  religi;.n,  the  same  habits,  the  same  manners,  and  im- 
bued with  the  same  opinions,  propagated  under  the  same  formb. 
The  rest  is  unceitain,  but  this  is  certain  ;  and  it  is  a  fact  new 
to  the  world,  a  fact  fraught  with  such  portentous  consequences 
\s  to  baffle  the  eflbrts  even  of  the  imagination." 

Let  us  turn  from  the  French  statesman  writing  in  1835,  to  an 
English  statesman  who  is  justly  regarded  as  the  highest  author- 
ity in  all  statistical  subjects,  and  Avho  described  the  United  Stater, 
only  five  years  ago.     Macgregor*  tells  us — 

*'  The  states  which,  on  the  ratillcalion  of  independence,  formed 
Ihe  American  Republican  Union,  Avere  thirteen,  viz.  : 

"  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island 
*  Macgrcgor's  "  Commercial  Statistics,"  vol.  iii  ,  p.  13. 


iiT    SARATOGA  305 

Mew    5?ork,   New  Jersey,  Delaware,   Maryland,  Pennsylvania 
ViigJnia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia. 

"  The  foregoing  thirteen  states  {the  ivhole  inliabited  ierritoiij 
of  which,  icith  the  exception  of  a  few  stnall  settlements,  teas 
confined  to  the  region  extendiiig  between  the  Alleghany  Mount' 
ains  and  the  Atlantic)  were  those  which  existed  at  the  period 
when  they  became  an  acknowledged  separate  and  independent 
federal  sovereign  power.  The  thirteen  stripes  of  the  standard 
or  flag  of  the  United  States  continue  to  represent  the  original 
number.  The  stars  have  multiplied  to  twenty-six,*  according 
as  the  number  of  states  have  increased. 

"  The  territory  of  the  thirteen  original  states  of  the  Union, 
mcluding  Maine  and  Vermont,  comprehended  a  superficies  of 
371,124  English  square  miles  ;  that  of  the  -whole  United  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1  20,354  ;  that  of  France,  in- 
eluding  Corsica,  214,910  ;  that  of  the  Austrian  empire,  including 
Hungary  and  all  the  Imperial  states,  257,540  English  square 
miles. 

"  The  present  superficies  oi  the  twenty-six  constitutional  states 
of  the  Anglo-American  Union,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
territories  of  Florida,  include  1,029,025  square  miles;  to  which 
if  we  add  the  Northwest,  or  Wisconsin  Territory,  east  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  and  bound  by  Lake  Superior  on  the  north,  and  Michi- 
gan on  the  east,  and  occupying  at  least  100,000  square  miles, 
and  then  add  the  great  western  region,  not  yet  well  defined 
territories,  but  at  the  most  limited  calculation  comprehending 
700,000  square  miles,  the  whole  unbroken  in  its  vast  length  and 
breadth  by  foreign  nations,  comprehends  a  portion  of  the  earth's 
surface  equal  to  1,729,025  English,  or  1,296,770  geographical 
square  miles." 

We  may  add  that  the  population  of  ihe  states  when  they  de- 
clared their  independence  was  about  two  millions  and  a  half; 
it  is  now  twenty-three  millions. 

]  have  quoted  Macgregor,  not  only  on  account  of  the  clear  and 
full  view  whicli  he  gives  of  the  progress  of  America  to  the  date 
when  he  wrote,  but  because  his  description  may  be  contrasted 
with  what  the  United  States  have  become  even  since  his  book 
appeared.  Only  three  years  after  the  time  when  Macgregoj 
thus  wrote,  the  American  president  truly  stated  : 

♦  Fresh  stars  have  dawned  since  this  was  written. 


31C  \IC10RY     OF     THE     A  M  E  R I  C  A  N  > 

♦'  Within  less  than  lour  years  the  annexation  of  T(>xas  to  tne 
Union  has  heen  consummated  ;  all  conflicting  title  to  llie  Oregon 
Territory,  south  of  the  49th  degree  of  north  latitude,  adjusted; 
and  New  Mexico  and  Upper  California  have  been  acquired  by 
treaty.  The  area  of  these  several  territories  contains  1,193,061 
square  miles,  or  763,559,040  acres  ;  vi^hile  the  area  of  the  re- 
maining twenty-nine  states,  and  the  territory  not  yet  orgaruz-  i 
irito  states  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  contains  2,059,513  square 
miles,  or  1,318,126,058  acres.  These  estimates  show  that  the 
territories  recently  acquired,  and  over  which  our  exclusive  juris 
diction  and  dominion  have  been  extended,  constitute  a  country 
more  than  half  as  large  as  all  that  which  was  held  by  the  United 
States  before  their  acquisition.  If  Oregon  be  excluded  from  the 
estimate,  there  will  still  remain  -within  the  limits  of  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  and  California,  851,598  square  miles,  or  545,012,720 
acres,  being  an  addition  equal  to  more  than  one  third  of  all  the 
territory  owned  by  the  United  States  before  their  acquisition,  and, 
including  Oregon,  nearly  as  great  an  extent  of  territory  as  the 
whole  of  Europe,  Russia  only  excepted.  The  Mississippi,  so 
lately  the  frontier  of  our  country,  is  now  only  its  centre.  With 
the  addition  of  the  late  acquisitions,  the  United  States  are  now 
estimated  to  be  nearly  as  large  as  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  sea-coast  of  Texas  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  upward  of 
400  miles  ;  of  the  coast  of  Upper  California,  on  the  Pacific,  of 
970  miles  ;  and  of  Oregon,  including  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  of  650 
miles ;  making  the  u-hole  extent  of  sea-coast  on  the  Pacific 
1620  miles,  and  the  whole  extent  on  both  the  Pacific  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  2020  miles.  The  length  of  the  coast  on  the  At- 
lantic, from  the  northern  limits  of  the  United  States,  round  the 
Capes  of  Florida  to  the  Sabine  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  Texas, 
is  estimated  to  be  3100  miles,  so  that  the  addition  of  sea-coast, 
including  Oregon,  is  very  nearly  two  thirds  as  great  as  n\\  we 
possessed  before  ;  and,  e.xclading  Oregon,  is  an  addition  oi  t..UO 
miles,  being  nearly  equal  to  one  half  of  the  extent  of  coast  which 
we  possessed  before  these  acquisitions.  We  have  now  three  gnat 
maritime  iVoiits  —  on  tlie  Atlantic,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  tho 
Pacific,  making,  in  the  whole,  an  extent  of  sea-coast  exceeding 
5000  miles.  This  is  ihc  extent  of  the  sea-coast  of  tlie  United 
States,  not  including  bays,  sounds,  and  small  irregularities  ol*  the 
main  shore  and   of  the  sea  islands.      If  these  be  included,  thf 


ATSARATOOA..  311 

length  ot"  the  sK  ore-line  of  coast,  as  estimated  hy  tht  superintend 
ent  of"  the  Coast  Survey  in  his  report,  woukl  be  33,(JG3  miles." 

The  imjwrtauce  of  the  power  of  tlie  United  States  being  then 
firmly  planted  along  the  Pacific  applies  not  only  to  the  New 
World,  but  to  the  Old.  Opposite  to  San  Francisco,  on  the  coact 
of  that  ocean,  lie  the  wealthy  but  decrepit  empires  of  China  and 
Japan.  Numerous  groups  of  isleis  stud  the  larger  part  of  the  in* 
torvening  sea,  and  form  convenient  stepping-stones  for  the  prog 
iiS8s  of  commerce  or  ambition.  The  intercourse  of  traffic  between 
these  ancient  Asiatic  monarchies  and  the  young  Anglo- American 
republic  must  be  rapid  and  extensive.  Any  attempt  of  the  Chi- 
nese or  Japanese  rulers  to  check  it  will  only  accelerate  an  armed 
collision.  The  American  Avill  either  buy  or  force  his  way.  Be- 
tween such  populations  as  that  of  China  and  Japan  on  the  one 
side,  and  that  of  the  United  States  on  the  other  —  the  former 
haughty,  formal,  and  insolent ;  the  latter  bold,  intrusive,  and  un- 
scrupulous—  causes  of  quarrel  must  sooner  or  later  arise.  The 
results  of  such  a  quarrel  can  not  be  doubted.  America  will 
scarcely  imitate  the  forbearance  shown  by  England  at  the  end 
of  our  late  war  with  the  Celestial  Empire  ;  and  the  conquests  of 
China  and  Japan,  by  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  United  States, 
are  events  Avhich  many  now  living  are  likely  to  witness.  Com- 
pared with  the  magnitude  of  such  changes  in  the  dominion  of 
the  Old  World,  the  certain  ascendency  of  the  Anglo- Americana 
over  Central  and  Southern  America  seems  a  matter  of  secondary 
importance.  Well  may  we  repeat  De  Tocqueville's  words,  ihaJ 
the  growing  power  of  this  commonwealth  is  "  un  fait  entiere 
ment  nouveau  dans  le  monde,  et  dont  I'imagination  elle-meme  ne 
tsaurait  saisir  la  portee." 

An  Englishman  may  look,  and  ought  to  look,  on  the  growing 
grandeur  of  the  Americans  with  no  small  degree  of  generous  sym- 
patliy  and  satisfaction.  They,  like  ourselves,  are  members  of  the 
great  Anglo-Saxon  nation,  "  whose  race  and  language  are  now 
overrunning  the  world  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other."*  And 
whatever  differences  of  form  of  government  may  exist  between 
us  and  them — whatever  jeminisoences  of  the  days  when,  though 
brethren^  we  strove  together,  may  rankle  in  the  minds  of  us,  tho 
defeatol  party,  we  should  cherish  the  bonds  o*'  common  nation- 
ality that  still  exist  between  us.     We  shoul  1  remember,  as  the 

♦  Arnold. 


Sl'-i  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

Athenians  remembered  of  the  Spartans  at  a  season  (f  jealousy 
and  temptation,  that  our  race  is  one,  beinof  of  the  same  blood, 
epeakinn^  the  same  language,  having  an  essential  resemblai  ce  in 
our  institutions  and  usages,  and  worshiping  in  the  temples  of  tlie 
same  God.*  All  this  may  and  should  be  borne  in  mind.  And 
y.jt  an  Englishman  can  hardly  watch  the  progress  of  America 
v.ithout  the  regretful  thought  that  America  once  was  English, 
»rid  that,  but  for  the  folly  of  our  rulers,  she  might  be  English 
ftill.  It  is  true  that  the  commerce  between  the  two  countries 
has  largely  and  beneficially  increased,  but  this  is  no  proof  that 
the  increase  would  not  have  been  still  greater  had  the  states  re- 
mained integral  portions  of  the  same  great  empire.  By  givmg  a 
fair  and  just  participation  in  political  rights,  these,  "  the  fairest 
possessions"  of  the  British  crown,  might  have  been  preserved  to 
it.  "  This  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy"t  would  not  have 
been  dismembered  ;  nor  should  we  see  that  which  ought  to  be 
the  right  arm  of  our  strength,  now  menacing  us  in  every  political 
crisis  as  the  most  formidable  rival  of  our  commercial  and  mari- 
time ascendency. 

The  war  which  rent  away  the  North  American  colonies  from 
England  is,  of  all  subjects  in  history,  the  most  painful  for  an 
Englishman  to  dwell  on.  It  was  commenced  and  carried  on  by 
the  British  ministry  in  iniquity  and  folly,  and  it  was  concluded 
in  disaster  and  shame.  But  the  contemplation  of  it  can  not  be 
evaded  by  the  historian,  however  nmch  it  may  be  abhorred. 
Nor  can  any  military  event  be  said  to  have  exercised  moi'e  im- 
portant influence  on  the  future  fortunes  of  mankind  than  the 
complete  defeat  of  Burgoyne's  expedition  in  1777  ;  a  defeat 
which  rescued  the  revolted  colonists  from  certain  subjection,  and 
which,  by  inducing  the  courts  of  France  and  Spain  to  attack  En- 
gland in  their  behalf,  insured  the  independence  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  formation  of  that  transatlantic  power  which  not 
tnly  America,  but  both  Europe  and  Asia  now  see  and  feel. 

Still,  in  proceeding  to  describe  this  "  decisive  battle  of  the 
world,"  a  very  brief  recapitulation  of  the  earlier  events  of  the 
war  may  be  suflicient ;  nor  shall  I  linger  unnecessarily  on  a  pain- 
ful theme. 

The    five    northern   colonies   of  Massachusetts,    Connecticut 

*  Em'  ofinifiov  re  kol  6/iny7i,uc(jnv,  Koi  QeQv  ISpvaaru  t(  koiv^  /cat  ■dvahv, 
^Hri'i  T0  npoTpnna — Hkuodotiis,  viii.,  144.  ^   Lord  Chathan.. 


KT     SARATOGA  313 

Rhode  Ifilaiid,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  usually  classed 
tojrelher  as  the  New  Enghuid  colonies,  were  the  strongholds  of 
the  insurreciiou  against  the  mother  couutrJ^  The  feeling  ol  re- 
sistance was  less  vehement  and  general  in  the  central  settlement 
ol"  New  York,  and  still  less  so  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and 
tlie  otiier  colonies  of  the  South,  although  every  where  it  was 
formidably  strong.  But  it  was  among  the  descendants  of  the 
sleru  Puritans  that  the  spirit  of  Cromwell  and  Vane  breathed  in 
all  iti  fervor ;  it  -was  from  the  New  Englanders  that  the  first 
armed  opposition  to  the  British  crown  had  been  offered  ;  and  it 
was  by  them  that  the  most  stubborn  determination  to  fight  to 
the  last,  rather  than  waive  a  single  right  or  privilege,  had  been 
displayed.  In  HTS^hey  had  succeeded  in  forcing  the  British 
troops  to  evacuate  Boston;  and  the  events  of  1776  had  made 
New  York  (which  the  Royalists  captured  in  that  year)  the  prin- 
cipal basis  of  operations  for  the  armies  of  the  mother  country. 

A.  glance  at  the  map  will  show  that  the  Hudson  River,  which 
falls  into  the  Atlantic  at  New  York,  runs  down  from  the  north 
at  the  back  of  the  New  England  States,  forming  an  angle  of 
about  forty- five  degrees  with  the  line  of  the  coast  of  the  Atlan- 
tic, along  which  the  New  England  States  are  situate.  North- 
ward of  the  Hudson  we  see  a  small  cham  of  lakes  communicat- 
iu^r  with  the  Canadian  frontier.  It  is  necessary  to  attend  closely 
to  these  geographical  points,  m  order  to  understand  the  plan  of 
the  operations  which  the  English  attempted  in  1777,  and  which 
the  battle  of  Saratoga  defeated. 

The  English  had  a  considerable  force  in  Canada,  and  in  1776 
had  completely  repulsed  an  attack  which  the  Americans  had 
made  upon  that  province.  The  British  ministiy  resolved  to  avail 
themselves,  in  the  next  year,  of  the  advantage  which  the  occu- 
pation of  Canada  gave  them,  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
fense, but  for  the  purpose  of  striking  a  vigorous  and  crushing 
blow  asfainst  the  revolted  colonies.  With  this  view  the  army  in 
Canada  was  largely  re-enforced.  Seven  thousand  veteran  troops 
were  sent  out  from  England,  with  a  corps  of  artiller}'^  abundamily 
supplied,  and  led  by  select  and  experienced  officers.  Large  quan 
tities  of  military  stores  wei'e  also  furnished  for  the  equipment  of 
the  Cana'lian  volunteers,  who  were  expected  to  join  the  expedi- 
tion It  -(-vas  intended  that  the  force  thus  collected  should  march 
southward  by  the  line  of  the  lakes,  and  thence  along  the  bar.ki 

O 


314  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANH 

of  tne  Hudson  Eiver.  The  British  army  from  Ncav  York  (or  a 
'argc  detaf^hmeut  of  il)  was  to  make  a  simultaneous  movement 
Morthward,  up  the  line  ol'  the  Hudson,  and  the  two  expeditions 
were  to  unite  at  Albany,  a  town  on  that  river.  By  these  opera- 
tions, all  communication  betAveen  the  northern  colonies  and  thot  o 
of  the  centre  and  south  would  be  cut  off.  An  irresistible  force 
would  be  concentrated,  so  as  to  crush  all  further  opposition  in 
New  England  ;  and  when  this  was  done,  it  was  believed  that 
the  other  colonies  would  speedily  submit.  The  Americans  had 
ho  troops  in  the  field  that  seemed  able  to  baffle  these  movements. 
Their  principal  army,  under  Washington,  was  occupied  in  watch" 
ing  over  Pennsylvania  and  the  South.  At  any  rate,  it  was  be- 
lieved that,  in  order  to  oppose  the  plan  intended  for  the  new 
campaign,  the  insurgents  must  risk  a  pitched  battle,  in  whicli 
the  superiority  of  the  Royalists,  in  numbers,  in  discipline,  and 
in  equipment,  seemed  to  promise  to  the  latter  a  crowning  victory. 
Without  question,  the  plan  was  ably  formed  ;  and  had  the  suc- 
cess of  the  execution  been  equal  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  design, 
the  reconquest  or  submission  of  the  thirteen  United  States  nmst 
in  all  human  probability  have  followed,  and  the  independence 
which  they  proclaimed  in  1776  would  have  been  extinguished 
before  it  existed  a  second  year.  No  European  power  had  as  yet 
come  forward  to  aid  America.  It  is  true  that  England  was  gen- 
erally regarded  with  jealousy  and  ill  will,  and  was  thought  to 
have  acquired,  at  the  treaty  of  Paris,  a  preponderance  of  dom  « 
ion  which  was  perilous  to  the  balance  of  power  ;  but,  thou^^h 
many  were  willing  to  wound,  none  had  yet  ventured  to  strike ; 
and  America,  if  defeated  in  1777,  would  have  been  suffered  to 
fall  unaided. 

Burgoyne  had  gained  celebrity  by  some  bold  and  dashing  ex- 
ploits in  Portugal  during  the  last  war  ;  he  was  personally  as 
brave  an  officer  as  ever  headed  British  troops  ;  he  had  consider- 
able skill  as  a  tactitian  ;  and  his  general  intellectual  abilities  and 
acquirements  were  of  a  high  order.  He  had  several  very  able 
and  experienced  officerB  under  him,  among  whom  were  Major  Gen- 
eral Philips  and  Brigadier  General  Frazer.  His  regular  troops 
amounted,  exclusively  of  tho  corps  of  artillery,  to  about  7200  men, 
rank  and  file.  Nearly  half  of  these  were  (jermans.  He  had 
also  an  auxiliary  force  of  from  two  to  three  thousand  Canadians. 
He  Bimimoned  the  M'arriors  of  several  tribes  of  the  red  Indian* 


ATSARATCGA.  31fi 

near  the  Western  lakes  to  join  his  army.  Much  eloquence  was 
poured  forth  both  in  America  and  in  England  in  denouncing  the 
use  of"  these  savage  auxiliaries.  Yet  Burgoyne  seems  to  have 
done  no  more  than  Montcalm,  Wolfe,  and  other  French,  Amer- 
ican, and  English  generals  had  done  before  him.  But,  in  truth, 
the  lawless  fL-rocily  of  the  Indians,  their  uuskillfulness  in  regulai 
action,  and  the  utter  impossibility  of  bringing  them  under  any 
jliscipline,  made  their  services  of  little  or  no  value  in  times  of 
ditiiculty  ;  while  the  indignation  which  their  outrages  inspired 
went  far  to  rouse  the  whole  population  of  the  invaded  districts 
into  active  hostilities  against  Burgoyne's  torce. 

Burgoyne  assembled  his  troops  and  confederates  near  the  Rivei 
Bouquet,  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Champlain.  He  then,  on  the 
21st  of  June,  1777,  gave  his  red  allies  a  war  feast,  and  harangued 
them  on  tne  necessity  of  abstaining  from  their  usual  cruel  prac- 
tices against  unarmed  people  and  prisoners.  At  the  same  time, 
he  published  a  pompous  manifesto  to  the  Americans,  in  which 
he  threatened  the  refractory  with  all  the  horrors  of  war,  Indian 
as  well  as  European.  The  army  proceeded  by  water  to  Crowr^ 
Point,  a  fortification  which  the  Americans  held  at  the  northerr 
extremity  of  the  inlet,  by  which  the  water  from  Lake  George  in 
conveyed  to  Lake  Champlain.  He  landed  here  without  opposi- 
tion ;  but  the  reduction  of  Ticonderoga,  a  fortification  about  twelve 
miles  to  the  south  of  Crown  Point,  was  a  more  serious  matter, 
and  was  supposed  to  be  the  critical  part  of  the  expedition.  Ti- 
conderoga commanded  the  passage  along  the  lakes,  and  was  con- 
sidered to  be  the  key  to  the  route  which  Burgoyne  wished  to  fol 
low.  The  English  had  been  repulsed  in  an  attack  on  it  in  the 
war  with  the  French  in  1758  with  severe  loss.  But  Burgoyne 
now  invested  it  with  great  skill ;  and  the  American  general, 
St.  Clair,  who  had  only  an  ill-equipped  army  of  about  3000  men, 
evacuated  it  on  the  5th  of  July.  It  seems  evident  that  a  dif- 
ferent course  would  have  caused  the  destruction  or  capture  of 
his  whole  army,  which,  weak  as  it  was,  was  the  chief  force  then 
in  the  field  for  the  protection  of  the  New  England  States.  When 
censured  by  some  of  his  coimtrymen  for  abandoning  Ticonderoga 
St.  Clair  truly  replied  "  that  he  had  lost  a  post,  but  saved  a  prov- 
ince." Burgc file's  troops  pursued  the  retiring  Americans,  gained 
several  adv  antages  over  *hem,  and  took  a  large  part  of  their  ar 
tiilory  and  military  stores 


3]t»  VICTOUy     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

The  loss  of  the  Britisli  in  tiiese  engagements  was  trifling.  Th« 
army  moved  southward  along  Lake  George  to  Skenesborough, 
and  thence,  slowly  and  with  great  difficulty,  across  a  broken  coun- 
try, full  of  creeks  and  marshes,  and  clogged  by  the  enemy  with 
elled  trees  and  other  obstacles,  to  Fort  Edward,  on  the  Hudson 
River,  the  American  troops  contiuuiug  to  retire  before  them. 

Burgoyne  reached  the  left  bank  of  the  Hudson  River  on  the 
30th  of  July.  Hitherto  he  had  overcome  every  difficulty  -which 
the  enemy  and  the  nature  of  the  country  had  placed  in  his  way. 
His  army  was  in  excellent  order  and  in  the  highest  spirits,  and 
the  peril  of  the  expedition  seemed  over  when  they  were  once  on 
the  bank  of  the  river  which  was  to  be  the  channel  of  communi 
cation  between  them  and  the  British  army  in  the  South.  But 
their  feehngs,  and  those  of  the  English  nation  in  general  when 
their  successes  were  aimounced,  may  best  be  learned  from  a  con- 
temporary writer.  Burke,  in  the  "Annual  Register"  for  177.7, 
describes  them  thus  : 

"  Such  M'as  the  rapid  ton-ent  of  success,  M'hich  swept  every 
thing  away  before  the  Northern  army  in  its  onset.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  if  both  officers  and  private  men  were  highly  elat- 
ed with  their  good  fortune,  and  deemed  that  and  their  prowess  to 
be  irresistible  ;  if  they  regarded  their  enemy  with  the  greatest 
contempt ;  considered  their  own  toils  to  be  nearly  at  an  end  ; 
Albany  to  be  already  in  their  hands  ;  and  the  reduction  of  the 
northern  provinces  to  be  rather  a  matter  of  some  time  than  an 
arduous  task  full  of  difficulty  and  danger. 

"  At  home,  the  joy  and  exultation  was  extreme  ;  not  only  at 
3ourt,  but  with  all  those  who  hoped  or  wdshed  the  unqualified 
subjugation  and  unconditional  submission  of  the  colonies.  The 
loss  in  reputation  was  greater  to  the  Americans,  and  capable  of 
more  fatal  consequences,  than  even  that  of  ground,  of  posts,  of 
artillery,  or  of  men.  All  the  contemptuous  and  most  degrading 
charges  wliich  had  been  made  by  their  enemies,  of  their  wanting 
the  resolution  and  abilities  of  men,  even  in  their  defense  of  what 
ever  was  dear  to  them,  were  now  repeated  and  believed.  Those 
who  still  regarded  them  as  men,  and  who  had  not  yet  lost  all 
afl'ectAon  to  them  as  brethren  ;  who  also  retained  hopes  that  a 
happy  recon'Mliation  upon  constitutional  principles,  without  sacri- 
ficing the  dignity  of  the  just  authority  of  government  on  the  one 
eide,  or  a  dereliition  of  the  rights  of  freemen  on  the  other,  wai 


AT     SARATOGA.  Jit 

not  even  now  impossible,  nolwithslanding'  theii  favorn'ole  dispo- 
sitions in  general,  could  not  help  feeling  upon  this  occasion  that 
the  Americans  sunk  not  a  little  in  their  estimation.  It  was  not 
diilicult  to  ([idlise  an  opinion  that  the  war  in  effect  was  over,  and 
that  any  farther  resistance  could  serve  only  to  render  the  terms 
of  their  submission  the  worse.  Huch  were  some  of  the  immedi- 
ate cfl'ects  of  the  loss  of  those  grand  keys  of  North  America-  -  Ti 
"Jonderoga,  and  the  lakes." 

The  astonishment  and  alarm  which  these  events  produced 
among  the  Americans  were  naturally  great ;  but  in  the  midst  of 
their  disasters,  none  of  the  colonists  showed  any  disposition  to 
submit.  The  local  governments  of  the  New  England  States,  ai 
well  as  the  Congress,  acted  with  vigor  and  firmness  in  their  ef- 
forts to  repel  the  enemy.  General  Gates  was  sent  to  take  the 
command  of  the  army  at  Saratoga  ;  and  Arnold,  a  favorite  lead- 
er of  the  Americans,  was  dispatched  by  Washington  to  act  undei 
him,  with  re-enforcements  of  troops  and  guns  from  the  main  Amer- 
ican army.  Burgoyne's  employment  of  the  Indians  now^  produced 
the  worst  possible  effects.  Though  he  labored  hard  to  check  the 
atrocities  which  they  were  accustomed  to  commit,  he  could  not 
prevent  the  occurrence  of  many  barbarous  outrages,  repugnant 
both  to  the  feelings  of  humanity  and  to  the  laws  of  civilized  war 
fare.  The  American  commanders  took  care  that  the  reports  of 
these  excesses  should  be  circulated  far  and  wide,  well  knowing 
that  they  would  make  the  stern  New  Englanders  not  droop,  but 
rage.  Such  was  their  efi'ect ;  and  though,  when  each  man  looked 
upon  his  wife,  his  children,  his  sisters,  or  his  aged  parents,  the 
thought  of  the  merciless  Indian  "  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  man, 
woman,  and  child,"  of  "  the  cannibal  savage  torturing,  murder- 
ing, roasting,  and  eating  the  mangled  victims  of  his  barbarous 
battles,"*  might  raise  terror  in  the  bravest  breasts ;  this  very 
terror  produced  a  directly  contrary  effect  to  causing  submission 
to  the  royal  army.  It  was  seen  that  the  few  friends  of  the  royal 
cause,  as  well  as  its  enemies,  were  liable  to  be  the  victims  of  tlw 
mdiacriminate  ry.ge  of  the  savages  ;t  and  thus  "  the  inhabitauti* 
of  the  open  and  frontier  countries  had  no  choice  of  acting  :  th»  v 
had  no  means  of  security  left  but  by  abandoning  their  habiia- 

*  Lord  Chatliam's  speech  on  the  employment  of  Indians  in  the  war. 
t  See,  in  the  "Annual  Register"  for  1777,  p.  117,  the  "Narrative  of  thi 
Morder  of  Miss  M'Crea,  the  daughter  of  ar  American  Loyalist  " 


318  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

tions  and  taking  up  arms.  Every  man  saw  the  necessity  of  lie^ 
coming  a  temporary  soldier,  not  only  for  his  own  security,  but 
for  tlie  protection  and  defense  of  those  connections  which  are 
dearar  than  life  itself.  Thus  an  army  was  poured  forth  by  the 
woods,  mountains,  and  marshes,  which  in  this  part  were  thickly 
sown  with  plpintations  and  villages.  The  Americans  recalled 
their  courage,  and,  when  their  regular  army  seemed  to  be  en- 
tirely w'asted,  the  spirit  of  the  country  produced  a  much  greater 
and  more  formidable  force."* 

While  resolute  recruits-,  accustomed  to  the  us'3  of  fire-arms,  and 
all  partially  trained  by  service  in  the  provincial  militias,  were 
thus  flocking  to  the  standard  of  Gates  and  Arnold  at  Saratoga, 
and  while  Burgoyne  was  engaged  at  Fort  Edward  in  providing 
the  means  for  the  farther  advance  of  his  army  through  the  intri- 
cate and  hostile  country  that  still  lay  before  him,  two  events  oc- 
curred, in  each  of  which  the  British  sustained  loss  and  the  Amer- 
icans obtained  advantage,  the  moral  efl'ects  of  which  were  even 
more  important  than  the  immediate  result  of  the  encounters. 
When  Burgoyne  left  Canada,  General  St.  Leger  was  detached 
from  that  province  with  a  mixed  force  of  about  1000  men  and 
Bome  light  field-pieces  across  Lake  Ontario  against  Fort  Stanwix, 
which  the  Americans  held.  After  capturing  this,  he  was  to 
march  along  the  Mohawk  River  to  its  confluence  with  the  Hud- 
son, between  Saratoga  and  Albany,  where  his  force  and  that  of 
Burgoyne's  were  to  unite  But,  after  some  successes,  St.  Leger 
was  obliged  to  retreat,  and  to  abandon  his  tents  and  large  quan- 
tities of  stores  to  the  garrison .  At  the  very  time  that  General 
Burgoyne  heard  of  this  disaster,  he  experienced  one  still  more  se- 
vere in  the  defeat  of  Colonel  Baum,  with  a  large  detachment  of 
German  troops,  at  Bennington,  whither  Burgoyne  had  sent  them 
for  the  purpose  of  capturing  some  magazines  of  provisions,  of 
which  the  British  army  stood  greatly  in  need.  The  Americans, 
augmented  by  continual  accessions  of  strength,  succeeded,  after 
many  attacks,  in  breaking  this  corps,  which  fled  into  the  woods, 
and  left  its  commander  mortally  wounded  on  the  field  :  they  then 
marched  against  a  force  of  five  hundred  grenadiers  and  light  in- 
fantry, which  was  advancing  to  Colonel  Baum's  assistance  under 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Breyman,  who,  after  a  gallant  resistance,  was 
obliged  to  retreat  on  the  main  army.     The  Brit_j^  loss  in  these 

•  Burke. 


ATSARATUGA  319 

iwo  ai;lions  exceeded  six  hundred  men  ;  and  a  party  of  American 
Loyalists,  on  their  way  to  join  the  army,  having  attached  them- 
Belves  to  Colonel  Baum's  corps,  were  destroyed  with  it. 

Notwithstanding  these  reverses,  which  added  greatly  to  the 
epirit  and  numbers  of  the  American  forces,  Burgoyne  detemiined 
to  advance.  It  was  impossible  any  longer  to  keep  up  his  com- 
munications with  Canada  by  way  of  the  lakes,  so  as  to  supply  his 
army  on  his  southward  march  ;  but  having,  by  unremitting  exer- 
tions, collected  provisions  for  thirty  days,  he  crossed  the  Hudson 
by  means  of  a  bridge  of  rafts,  and,  marching  a  short  distance 
along  its  western  bank,  he  encamped  on  the  14th  of  September 
on  the  heights  of  Saratoga,  about  eixteen  miles  from  Albany. 
The  Americans  had  fallen  back  from  Saratoga,  and  were  now 
strongly  posted  near  Stillwater,  about  half  way  between  Sarato- 
ga and  Albany,  and  showed  a  determination  to  recede  no  farther. 

Meanwhile  Lord  Howe,  with  the  bulk  of  the  British  army  that 
had  lain  at  New  York,  had  sailed  away  to  the  jjelaware,  and 
there  commenced,  a  campaign  against  Washington,  in  which  the 
Knglish  general  took  Philadelphia,  and  gained  other  showy  but 
unprofitable  successes.  But  Sir  Heni-y  Clinton,  a  brave  aiid  skill- 
ful officer,  was  left  with  a  considerable  force  at  New  York,  and 
he  undertook  the  task  of  moving  up  the  Hudson  to  co-operate 
with  Burgoyne.  Clinton  was  obliged  for  this  purpose  to  wait  for 
re-enforcements  which  had  been  promised  from  England,  and 
these  did  not  arrive  till  September.  As  soon  as  he  received 
them,  Clinton  embarked  about  3000  of  his  men  on  a  flotilla,  con- 
voyed by  some  ships  of  war  under  Commander  Hotham,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  force  his  way  up  the  river. 

The  country  between  Burgoyne's  position  at  Saratoga  and  that 
of  the  Americans  at  Stillwater  was  rugged,  and  seamed  with 
creeks  and  water-courses  ;  but,  after  great  labor  in  making  bridg- 
es and  temporary  causeways,  the  British  army  moved  forward, 
About  four  miles  from  Saratoga,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  19th  of 
September,  a  sharp  encounter  took  place  between  part  of  the  En- 
glish right  wing,  under  Burgoyne  himself,  and  a  strong  body  oi 
the  enemy,  under  Gates  and  Arnold.  The  conflict  lasted  till 
sunset.  The  British  remained  masters  of  the  field  ;  but  the  loss 
on  each  side  was  nearly  equal  (from  five  hundred  to  six  hundred 
men)  ;  and  the  spirits  of  the  Americans  were  greatly  ra  .sed  by 
naviug  withstood  the  best   regular  troops  of  the  English  army 


320  VICTORY     OF     THE      AMERICANS 

Burgijynt  now  halted  again,  and  strengfhened  his  itosition  by 
field-works  and  redouhts ;  and  the  Americans  also  improved 
their  defenses.  The  two  armies  remained  nearly  within  canuon- 
shot  of  each  other  for  a  considerable  time,  during  which  Bur- 
goyne  vi'as  anxiously  looking  for  intelligence  of  the  promised  ex- 
pedition from  New  York,  which,  according  to  the  original  plan, 
ought  by  this  time  to  have  been  approaching  Albany  from  the 
south.  At  last  a  messenger  from  Clinton  made  his  way,  M'ith 
gicat  difficulty,  to  Burgoyne's  camp,  and  brought  the  informa- 
tion tliat  Clinton  was  on  his  way  up  the  Hudson  to  attack  the 
American  forts  which  barred  the  passage  up  that  river  to  Alba- 
uy.  Burgoyne,  in  reply,  stated  his  hopes  that  the  promised  co- 
operation would  be  speedy  and  decisive,  and  added,  that  unless 
he  received  assistance  before  the  10th  of  October,  he  would  be 
obliged  to  retreM  to  the  lakes  through  want  of  provisions. 

The  Indians  and  Canadians  now  began  to  desert  Burgoyne, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  Gates's  army  was  continually  re-en- 
forced by  fresh  bodies  of  the  militia.  An  expeditionary  force  wau 
detached  by  the  Americans,  which  made  a  bold,  though  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  retake  Ticonderoga.  And  finding  the  number 
and  spirit  of  the  enemy  to  increase  daily,  and  his  own  stores  of 
provisions  to  diminish,  Burgoyne  determined  on  attacking  the 
Americans  in  front  of  him,  and,  by  dislodging  them  from  their  po- 
sition, to  gain  the  means  of  moving  upon  Albany,  or,  at  least,  of 
relieving  his  troops  from  the  straitened  position  in  which  they 
were  cooped  up. 

Burgoyne's  force  was  now  reduced  to  less  than  6000  men. 
The  right  of  his  camp  was  on  some  high  ground  a  little  to  the 
west  of  the  river ;  thence  his  intrenchments  extended  along  the 
lower  ground  to  the  bank  of  the  Hudson,  their  line  being  nearly 
at  a  right  angle  with  the  course  of  the  stream.  The  lines  were 
fortified  in  the  centre  and  on  the  left  with  redoubts  and  field- 
works.  The  numerical  force  of  the  Americans  was  now  greatei 
than  the  British,  even  in  regular  troops,  and  the  numbers  of  the 
militia  and  volunteers  which  had  joined  Gates  and  Arnold  were 
greater  still.  The  right  of  the  American  position,  that  is  to  say, 
the  part  of  it  nearest  to  the  river,  was  too  strong  to  be  assailed 
with  any  prosper't  of  success,  and  Burgoyne  therefore  determ.ned 
to  endeavor  to  force  their  left.  For  this  purpose  he  formed  a 
column  of  1500  regular  troops,  with  two  twelve-poundors,  tw« 


AT     SARATOaA.  d21 

howitzers,  and  six  six-pounders.  He  headed  tl  is  in  person,  haw 
iua  Generals  Philips,  Keidosel,  and  Frazer  under  him.  Tin;  en- 
emy's force  immediately  in  front  of  his  lines  was  so  strong  th  it 
he  dared  not  weaken  the  troops  who  guarded  them  by  detaching 
any  more  to  strengthen  his  column  of  attack.  The  right  of  the 
camp  was  commanded  by  Generals  Hamilton  and  Spaight ;  the 
I  aft  pan  of  it  was  committed  to  the  charge  of  Brigadier  GoU. 

Il  was  on  the  7th  of  October  that  Burgoyne  led  his  column  on 
U)  the  attack  ;  and  on  the  preceding  day,  the  6th,  Clinton  had 
successfully  executed  a  brilliant  enterprise  against  the  two  Amer- 
ican forts  which  barred  his  progress  up  the  Hudson.  He  had 
captured  them  both,  with  severe  loss  to  the  American  forces  op- 
posed  to  him  ;  he  had  destroyed  the  fleet  which  the  Americans 
had  been  forming  on  the  Hudson,  under  the  protection  of  their 
foils  ;  and  the  upward  river  was  laid  open  to  his  squadron.  H«! 
was  now  only  a  hundred  and  fifty-six  miles  distant  from  Bur- 
goyne, and  a  detachment  of  1700  men  actually  advanced  within 
forty  miles  of  Albany.  Unfortunately,  Burgoyne  and  Clinton 
were  each  ignorant  of  the  other's  movements  ;  but  if  Burgoyne 
had  won  his  battle  on  the  7th,  he  must,  on  advancing,  have  soon 
learned  the  tidings  of  Clinton's  success,  and  Clinton  would  have 
heard  of  his.  A  junction  would  soon  have  been  made  of  the  two 
victorious  armies,  and  the  great  objects  of  the  campaign  might 
yet  have  been  accomplished.  All  depended  on  the  fortune  of  the 
column  with  which  Burgoyne,  on  the  eventful  7th  of  October, 
i777,  advanced  against  the  American  position.  There  were 
brave  men,  both  English  and  German,  in  its  ranks  ;  and,  in  par- 
ticular, it  comprised  one  of  the  best  bodies  of  Grenadiers  in  the 
British  serA'ice. 

Burgoyne  pushed  forward  some  bodies  of  irregular  troops  to 
distract  the  enemy's  attention,  and  led  his  column  to  within  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  left  of  Gates's  camp,  and  then  deploy- 
ed his  men  into  line.  The  Grenadiers  under  Major  Ackland 
were  drawn  up  on,  the  left,  a  corps  of  Germans  in  the  centre, 
and  the  English  Light  Infantry  and  the  24th  regiment  on  the 
right.  But  Gates  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked  ;  and  directly  the 
British  Hne  was  formed  and  began  to  advance,  the  American  gen- 
eral, with  admirable  skill,  caused  a  strong  force  to  make  a  sudden 
and  vehement  rush  against  its  left.  The  Grenadiers  under  Ack- 
land sustained  the  charge  of  superior  numbers  nobly.     But  Gatea 

O  2 


322  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

Bent  more  Americans  forward,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  acti(»n 
became  general  along  the  centre,  so  as  to  prevent  the  Germans 
from  sending  any  help  to  the  Grenadiers.  Burgoyne's  right  was 
not  yet  engaged ;  but  a  mass  of  the  enemy  were  observed  au- 
vancing  from  their  extreme  left,  with  the  evident  intention  of 
turning  the  British  right,  and  cutting  off  its  retreat.  Tho  Light 
Infantry  and  the  24th  now  fell  back,  and  formed  an  oblique  sec- 
ond hue.  v.hich  enabled  them  to  baffle  this  maneuver,  and  also 
to  succor  their  comrades  in  the  left  wing,  the  gallant  Grenadiers, 
who  were  overpowered  by  superior  numbers,  and,  but  for  this  aid, 
must  have  been  cut  to  pieces.  Arnold  now  came  up  with  three 
American  regiments,  and  attacked  the  right  flanks  of  the  English 
double  line.  Burgoyne's  whole  force  was  soon  compelled  to  re- 
treat toward  their  camp  ;  the  left  and  centre  were  in  complete 
disorder ;  but  the  Light  Lifantry  and  the  24th  checked  the  fury 
of  the  assailants,  and  the  remains  of  Burgoyne's  column  with 
great  difficulty  effected  their  return  to  their  camp,  leaving  six  of 
their  guns  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  and  great  numbers  of 
killed  and  wounded  on  the  field  ;  and  especially  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  artillery-men,  who  had  stood  to  their  guns  until  shot 
down  or  bayoneted  beside  them  by  the  advancing  Americans. 

Burgoyne's  column  had  been  defeated,  but  the  action  was  not 
yet  over.  The  English  had  scarcely  entered  the  camp,  when 
the  Americans,  pursuing  their  success,  assaulted  it  in  several 
places  with  uncommon  fierceness,  rushing  to  the  lines  through  a 
severe  fire  of  grape-shot  and  musketry  with  the  utmost  fury.  Ar- 
nold especially,  who  on  this  day  appeared  maddened  with  the 
thirst  of  combat  and  carnage,  urged  on  the  attack  against  a  part 
of  the  intrenchments  which  was  occupied  by  the  Light  Infantry 
under  Lord  Balcarras.*  But  the  English  received  him  with 
vigor  and  spirit.  The  struggle  here  was  obstinate  and  sanguin- 
ary. At  length,  as  it  grew  toward  evening,  Arnold,  having  forced 
all  obstacles,  entered  the  works  with  some  of  the  most  fearless 
of  his  followers.  But  in  this  critical  moment  of  glory  and  dan- 
ger, he  received  a  painful  wound  in  the  same  leg  which  had  al- 
ready been  injured  at  the  assault  on  Cluebec.  To  his  bitter  le- 
^' et,  he  was  obliged  to  be  carried  back.  His  party  still  contin- 
ued tlie  attack  ;  bu'  the  English  also  continued  their  obstinate 
reeistance  and  at  last  niglit  fell,  and  tne  assailants  withdrew 
"  Botta's  "  American  War,"  book  viii 


AT     SARATOGA  liP.Z 

from  this  quarter  of  llie  British  iiitreiichnieats  But  in  another 
part  the  u.ttack  had  been  more  successful.  A  body  of  the  Amer- 
icans, under  Colonel  Brooke,  forced  their  way  in  through  a  part 
of  the  uitreuchments  on  the  extreme  right,  which  was  defend- 
ed by  the  German  reserve  under  Colonel  Breyman.  The  Ger- 
'aans  resisted  well,  and  Breyman  died  in  defense  of  his  post  ; 
out  the  Americans  made  good  the  ground  which  they  had  won, 
and  captured  baggage,  tents,  artillery,  and  a  store  of  ammunition; 
which  they  were  greatly  in  need  of.  n  They  had,  by  establisliing 
themselves  on  this  point,  acquired  the  xneans  of  completely  turn- 
ing the  right  Hank  of  the  British,  and  gaining  their  laar.  To 
prevent  this  calamity,  Burgoyne  efl'ected  during  the  night  a  com- 
plete change  of  position.  With  great  skill,  he  removed  his  whole 
army  to  some  heights  near  the  river,  a  little  northward  of  the 
former  camp,  and  he  there  drew  up  his  men,  expecting  to  be  at- 
tacked on  the  following  day.  But  Gates  was  resolved  not  to  risk 
the  certain  triumph  which  his  success  had  already  secured  for 
him.  He  harassed  the  English  with  skirmishes,  but  attempted 
no  regular  attack.  Meanwhile  he  detached  bodies  of  troops  on 
both  sides  of  the  Hudson'  to  prevent  the  British  from  recrossing 
that  river  and  to  bar  their  retreat.  AVhen  night  fell,  it  became 
absolutely  necessary  ibr  Burgoyne  to  retire  again,  and,  according- 
ly, the  troops  were  marched  through  a  stormy  and  rainy  night 
toward  Saratoga,  abandoning  their  sick  and  wounded,  and  the 
greater  part  of  their  baggage  to  the  enemy. 

Before  the  rear  guard  quitted  the  camp,  the  last  sad  honors 
were  paid  to  the  brave  General  Frazer,  who  had  been  mortally 
wounded  on  the  7th,  and  expired  on  the  following  day.  The  fu- 
neral of  this  gallant  soldier  is  thus  described  by  the  Italian  his- 
iorian  Botta  : 

"  Toward  midnight  the  body  of  General  Frazer  was  buried  in 
the  British  camp.  His  brother  officers  assembled  sadly  round 
while  the  funeral  service  was  read  over  the  remains  of  their 
brave  comrade,  and  his  body  was  committed  to  the  hostile  earth. 
The  ceremony,  always  mournlul  and  solemn  of  itself,  Avas  render- 
ed even  terrible  by  the  sense  of  i-ecent  losses,  of  present  and  fu- 
ture dangers,  and  of  regret  for  the  deceased.  Meanwliile  tho 
Lla7,e  and  roar  of  the  American  artillery  amid  the  natural  dark- 
ness and  stillness  of  the  night  came  on  the  senses  with  startling 
awe.     The  grave  had  been  dug  within  range  of  the  enemy's  bat 


324  VICTORY     OF     THE     AMERICANS 

teries :  and  while  the  service  was  proceeding,  a  cannon  UaL' 
struck  the  grouui  close  to  the  coffin,  and  spattered  earth  ovei 
the  face  of  the  officiating  chaplain."* 

Burgoyne  now  took  up  his  last  position  on  the  heights  neai 
Saratoga  ;  and  hemmed  in  by  the  enemy,  who  refused  any  en- 
counter, and  baffled  in  all  his  attempts  at  finding  a  path  of  es- 
cape, he  there  lingered  until  famine  compelled  him  to  capitulate. 
The  fortitude  of  the  British  anny  durmg  this  melancholy  period 
has  been  justly  eulogized  by  many  native  historians,  hut  I  prefer 
quoting  the  testimony  of  a  foreign  writer,  as  free  from  all  possi- 
bility of  partiality.     Botta  says  :+ 

"  It  exceeds  the  power  of  words  to  describe  the  pitiable  condi- 
tion to  which  the  British  army  was  now  reduced.  The  troops 
were  worn  down  by  a  series  of  toil,  privation,  sickness,  and  des- 
perate fighting.  Thsy  were  abandoned  by  the  Indians  and  Ca- 
nadians, and  the  effective  force  of  the  whole  army  was  now  di- 
minished by  repeated  and  heavy  losses,  which  had  principally 
fallen  on  the  best  soldiers  and  the  most  distinguished  officers, 
from  10,000  combatants  to  less  than  one  half  that  number.  Of 
this  remnant  little  more  than  3000  were  English. 

"  In  these  circumstances,  and  thus  weakened,  they  were  la- 
vested  by  an  army  of  four  times  their  own  number,  whose  posi 
tion  extended  three  parts  of  a  circle  round  them  ;  who  refused  to 
fight  them,  as  knowing  their  weakness,  and  who,  from  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  could  not  be  attacked  in  any  part.  In  this  help- 
less condition,  obhged  to  be  constantly  under  arms,  while  the  ene- 
my's cannon  played  on  every  part  of  their  camp,  and  even  the 
American  rifle  balls  whistled  in  many  parts  of  the  lines,  the 
ti'oops  of  Burgoyne  retained  their  customary  firmness,  and,  while 
sinking  under  a  hard  necessity,  they  showed  themselves  worthy 
of  a  better  fate.  They  could  not  be  reproached  with  an  action 
or  a  word  which  betrayed  a  want  of  temper  or  of  fortitude." 

At  length  the  13th  of  October  arrived,  and  as  no  prospect  of 
assistance  appeared,  and  the  provisions  were  nearly  exhausted, 
Burgoyne,  by  the  unanimous  advice  of  a  council  of  war,  sent  & 
messenger  to  the  American  camp  to  treat  of  a  Convention. 

General  Gates  in  the  first  instance  demanded  that  the  royal 
army  should  surrender  prisoners  of  war      He  also  proposed  that 
the  British  should  groimd  their  arms.     Burgoyne  replied,  "  Thii 
*  Botta,  book  viii.  t  Book  viii. 


AT     SARilTOGA. 


article  is  nadmissible  ia  every  extremity  ;  sooner  than  tliih  army 
will  com  silt  to  ground  their  arms  in  iheir  sncamprnent,  they 
will  rush  on  the  enemy,  determined  to  take  no  quarter."  After 
various  messages,  a  convention  for  tlie  surrender  of  the  army  was 
settled,  which  provided  that  "  the  troops  under  General  Burgoyne 
were  to  march  out  of  their  camp  with  the  honors  of  war,  and 
the  artillery  of  the  mtrenchments.  to  the  verge  of  the  river 
wh^re  the  arms  and  artillery  were  to  be  left.  The  arms  to  be 
|»iled  by  word  of  coi.'.niand  from  their  own  officers.  A  free  pas- 
iage  was  to  be  granted  to  the  army  under  Lieutenant  General 
Burgoyne  to  Great  Britain,  upon  condition  of  not  serving  again 
in  North  America  during  the  present  contest." 

The  Articles  of  Capitulation  were  settled  on  the  15th  of  Octr. 
ber  ;  and  on  that  very  evening  a  messenger  arrived  from  Clinton 
with  an  account  of  his  successes,  and  with  the  tidings  that  pai  I 
of  his  force  had  penetrated  as  far  as  Esopus,  within  fifty  miles 
of  Burgoyne's  camp.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  public  faith  was 
pledged  ;  and  the  army  was  indeed  too  debilitated  by  fatigue  ami 
hunger  to  resist  an  attack,  if  made ;  and  Gates  certainly  would 
have  made  it,  if  the  Convention  had  been  broken  ofi'.  Accord- 
ingly, on  the  17th,  the  Convention  of  Saratoga  was  carried  into 
efl'ect.  By  this  Convention  5790  men  surrendered  themselves  as 
prisoners.  The  sick  and  wounded  left  in  the  camp  when  the 
British  retreated  to  Saratoga,  together  with  the  numbers  of  the 
British,  German,  and  Canadian  troops  who  w^ere  killed,  wounded, 
or  taken,  and  who  had  deserted  in  the  preceding  part  of  the  ex- 
pedition, were  reckoned  to  be  4689. 

The  British  sick  and  wounded  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  Americans  after  the  battle  of  the  seventh  were  treated 
with  exemplary  humanity  ;  and  when  the  Convention  was  ex- 
ecuted. General  Gates  showed  a  noble  delicacy  of  feeling,  which 
deserves  the  highest  degree  of  honor.  Every  circumstance  was 
avoided  which  could  give  the  appearance  of  triumph.  The  Araer- 
ifian  troops  remaiuf"!  within  their  lines  until  the  British  had 
piled  their  arms  ;  and  when  this  w^as  done,  the  vanquished  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  were  received  with  friendly  kindness  by  tlieii 
victors,  and  their  immediate  wants  were  promptly  and  liberally 
eupplied.  Discussions  and  disputes  afterward  arose  as  to  some 
of  the  terms  of  the  Convention,  and  the  American  Congress  re- 
fused for  a  long  time  to  carry  into  f  fleet  the  article  which  pr»< 


i26  \i(;Tor>v    of    the    Americans,  etc. 

vided  for  the  return  of  Burgoyne's  men  to  Europe  ;  but  no  blame 
Was  imputable  to  General  Gates  or  his  army,  who  showed  them- 
Eclves  to  be  generous  as  they  had  proved  themselves  to  be  brave 

Gates,  after  the  victory,  immediately  dispatched  Coloixel  Wil- 
kinson to  can-}'  the  happy  tidings  to  Congress.  On  being  mtro 
duced  into  the  hall,  he  said,  "  The  whole  British  army  has  laid 
dowai  its  arms  at  Saratoga ;  our  own,  full  of  vigor  and  courage, 
expect  your  orders.  It  is  for  your  wisdom  to  decide  where  the 
country  may  still  have  need  for  their  service."  Honors  and  rs 
•ft'ards  were  liberally  voted  by  the  Congress  to  their  conquering 
general  and  his  men  ;  and  it  would  be  difficult  (says  the  Itahan 
historian)  to  describe  the  transports  of  joy  which  the  news  of 
this  event  excited  among  the  Americans.  They  began  to  flattei 
themselves  with  a  still  more  happy  future.  No  one  any  longer 
felt  any  doubt  about  their  achieving  their  independence.  All 
hoped,  and  wdth  good  reason,  that  a  success  of  this  importance 
w^ould  at  length  determine  France,  and  the  other  European  pow- 
ers that  waited  for  her  example,  to  declare  themselves  in  favor 
of  America.  "  There  could  no  longer  he  any  question  respect- 
ing the  future.,  since  there  teas  jw  longer  the  risk  of  espousing 
the  cause  of  a  2Jeop)le  too  feeble  to  defend  themselves."* 

The  truth  of  this  was  soon  displayed  in  the  conduct  of  France. 
When  the  news  arrived  at  Paris  of  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga, 
and  of  the  victorious  march  of  Burgoyne  toward  Albany,  events 
which  seemed  decisive  in  favor  of  the  English,  instructions  had 
been  immediately  dispatched  to  Nantz,  and  the  other  ports  of 
the  kingdom,  that  no  American  privateers  should  be  suffered  to 
enter  them,  except  from  indispensable  necessity,  as  to  repair 
their  vessels,  to  obtain  provisions,  or  to  escape  the  perils  of  the 
sea.  The  American  commissioners  at  Paris,  in  their  disgust  and 
despair,  had  almost  broken  off  all  negotiations  with  the  French 
government ;  and  they  even  endeavored  to  open  communications 
with  the  British  ministry.  But  the  British  government,  elated 
with  the  first  successes  of  Burgoyne,  refused  to  listen  to  any 
Dvertures  for  accommodation.  But  when  the  news  of  Saratoga 
reached  Paris,  the  whole  scene  was  changed.  Franklin  and  his 
brother  commissioners  found  all  their  difficulties  with  the  French 
government  vanish  The  time  seemed  to  have  arrived  for  the 
house  of  Bourbon  to  take  a  full  revenge  for  all  it«  humiuatiorui 
*  Botta,  book  ix. 


SY^'OP^^I.<     UK      INVENTS,    ETC.  327 

and  lijsses  in  previous  wars.  Iir  December  a  treaty  waB  ar- 
ranged, and  formally  signed  in  the  February  following,  by  which 
France  acknowledged  tJte  Independent  United  States  of  Amer 
ira  This  was,  of  course,  tantamount  to  a  declaration  of  wai 
with  England.  Spain  soon  followed  France  ;  and,  before  long. 
Holland  took  the  same  course.  Largely  aided  by  French  fleets 
and  troops,  the  Americans  vigorously  maintained  the  war  against 
the  armies  which  England,  in  spite  of  her  European  foes,  con- 
tinued to  send  across  the  Atlantic.  But  the  struggle  was  too 
unequal  to  be  maintained  by  this  country  for  many  years ;  and 
when  the  treaties  of  1783  restored  peace  to  the  world,  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  was  reluctantly  recognized  by 
their  ancient  parent  and  recent  enemy,  England. 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  Burgoyne  at 
Saratoga,  A.D.  1777,  and  the  Battle  of  Valmy,  A.D. 
1792. 

1781.  Surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  the  British  army  to 
Washington. 

1782.  Rodney's  victory  over  the  Spanish  fleet.     Unsuccessful 
siege  of  Gibraltar  by  the  Spaniards  and  French. 

1783.  End  of  the  American  war. 

1788.  The  Sta.tes-G eniral  are  convened  in  France  ;   b^D' 
Qinf  of  the  Revolution 


S?8  BATTLE     OF     VALMY 


CHAPTER  XIV, 

THE  BATTLE  OF  VALMY,  i>  .D.  1792. 

Purpurei  metuunt  tyranni 

Injurinso  ne  pede  proruas 
Stantem  columnam  :  neu  populus  frequens 
Ad  arma  cessantes  ad  arma 
Concitet,  imperiumque  frangat. 

HoRAT.,  Od.  i.,  36. 

A.  little  fire  is  quickly  trodden  out, 

Which,  being  suffered,  rivers  can  not  quench. 

Shakspeake. 

A  FEW  miles  distant  from  the  little  town  of  St.  Menehc-  i,  m 
the  northeast  of  France,  are  the  village  and  hill  of  Valmy  and 
near  the  crest  of  that  hill  a  simple  monument  points  out  th<  bur- 
ial-place of  the  heart  of  a  general  of  the  French  republic  v  nd  a 
ma.shal  of  the  French  empire. 

The  elder  Kellerman  (father  of  the  distinguished  officer  of 
Uiat  name,  whose  cavalry  charge  decided  the  battle  of  Marengo) 
held  high  commands  in  the  French  armies  throughout  the  wars 
of  the  Convention,  the  Directory,  the  Consulate,  and  the  Em- 
pire. He  survived  those  wars,  and  the  empire  itself,  dyi/ig  in 
extreme  old  age  in  1820.  The  last  wish  of  the  veteran  on  his 
death-bed  was  that  his  heart  should  be  deposited  in  the  battle- 
field of  Valmy,  there  to  repose  among  the  remains  of  his  ol-<  com- 
panions in  arms,  who  had  fallen  at  his  side  on  that  spot  tr^enty- 
eight  years  before,  on  the  memorable  day  when  they  won  the 
primal  victory  of  Revolutionary  France,  and  prevented  the  arm- 
ies of  Brunswick  and  the  emigrant  bands  of  Cmidc  from  march- 
ing on  defenseless  Paris,  and  desti'oying  the  immature  democracy 
ill  its  cradle. 

The  Duke  of  Vahny  (lor  Kellerman,  when  made  one  of  Napo 
Icon's  militaiy  peers  in  1802,  took  his  title  from  this  same  bat- 
tle-field) had  pailioi])ated,  during  his  long  and  active  career,  in 
the  gaining  of  many  a  victor    (.'-'■  mere  immediately  dazzling  than 


BATTLE     OF     VALMY.  b<>3 

the  one,  the  ren.timhrance  of  which  he  thus  cherished.  He  had 
been  present  at  many  a  scene  of  carnage,  where  blood  flowed  in 
deluges,  coruparcd  with  which  the  libations  of  slaughter  poured 
out  at  Valmy  would  have  seemed  scant  and  insignificant.  But 
he  rightly  estimated  the  paramount  importance  of  the  battle  with 
which  he  thus  wishei  his  appellation  while  living,  and  his  mem- 
ory after  his  death,  to  be  identified.  The  successful  resislaiirc 
which  the  raw  Carmagnole  levies  and  the  disorganized  relics  of 
the  ol(?  monarchy's  army  then  opposed  to  the  combined  hosts  and 
shosen  loaders  of  Prussia,  Austria,  and  the  French  refugee  no- 
blesse, determined  at  once  and  forever  the  belligerent  character 
of  the  revolution.  The  raw  artisans  and  tradesmen,  the  clumsy 
burghers,  the  base  mechanics,  and  low  peasant-churls,  as  it  had 
been  the  fashion  to  term  the  middle  and  lower  classes  in  France, 
found  that  they  could  face  cannon  balls,  pull  triggers,  and  cross 
bayonets  without  having  been  drilled  into  military  machines,  and 
without  being  officered  by  scions  of  noble  houses.  They  awoke 
to  the  consciousness  of  their  own  instinctive  soldiership.  They 
at  once  acquired  confidence  in  themselves  and  in  each  other  ;  and  " 
that  confidence  soon  grew  into  a  spirit  of  unbounded  audacity  and 
ambition.  "  From  the  cannonade  of  Valmy  may  be  dated  tht 
commencement  of  that  career  of  victory  which  carried  their  arm- 
ies to  Vienna  and  the  Kremlin."* 

One  of  the  gravest  reflections  that  arises  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  civil  restlessness  and  military  enthusiasm  which  the 
close  of  the  last  century  saw  nationalized  in  France,  is  the  con- 
sideration that  these  disturbing  influences  have  become  perpetual. 
No  settled  system  of  government,  that  shall  endure  from  gener- 
ation to  generation,  that  shall  be  proof  against  corruption  and 
popular  violence,  seems  capable  of  taking  root  among  the  French. 
And  every  revolutionary  movement  in  Paris  thrills  throughout 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Even  the  successes  which  the  powers  al- 
'ied  against  France  gained  in  181-4  and  1815,  important  as  they 
werd  could  not  annul  the  efiects  of  the  preceding  twenty-three 
years  of  general  convulsion  and  war. 

In  1830,  the  dynasty  which  foreign  bayonets  had  imposed  o\. 
France  was  shaken  ofi,  and  men  trembled  at  the  expected  out 
break  of  French  anarchy  and  the  dreaded  inroads  of  French  am 
bition.     They  "  looked  forward  with  Uarassing  anxiety  to  a  po 

»  Alison. 


330  BATTLE    OF    VALMY. 

Hod  of  destruction  similar  to  that  which  the  Roman  world  expe- 
rienced about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  of  our  era."*  Louis 
Philippe  cajoled  Revolution,  and  then  strove  with  seeminjj  suc- 
cess to  stifle  it.  But,  in  spite  of  Fieschi  laws,  in  spite  of  the 
dazzle  of  Algerian  razzias  and  Pyrenee-efl'acing  marriages,  in  spite 
of  hundreds  of  armed  forts,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  coercing 
troops,  E evolution  lived,  and  struggled  to  get  free.  The  old  Titan 
spirit  heaved  restlessly  beneath  "  the  monarchy  based  on  repub 
lican  institutions."  At  last,  three  years  ago,  the  M'hole  fabric 
of  kingcraft  was  at  once  rent  and  scattered  to  the  winds  by  tho 
uprising  of  the  Parisian  democracy  ;  and  insurrections,  barricades 
and  dethronements,  the  downfalls  of  coronets  and  crowns,  the 
armed  collisions  of  parties,  systems,  and  populations,  became  the 
commonplaces  of  recent  European  history. 

France  now  calls  herself  a  republic.  She  first  assumed  that 
title  on  the  20th  of  September,  1792,  on  the  very  day  on  which 
the  battle  of  Valmy  was  fought  and  won.  To  that  battle  the 
democratic  spirit  which  in  1848,  as  well  as  in  1792,  proclaimed 
the  Republic  in  Paris,  owed  its  preservation,  and  it  is  thence  that 
the  imperishable  activity  of  its  principles  may  be  dated. 

Far  different  seemed  the  prospects  of  democracy  in  Europe  on 
the  eve  of  that  battle,  and  far  different  would  have  been  the  pres- 
ent position  and  influence  of  the  French  nation,  if  Brunswick's 
columns  had  charged  with  more  boldness,  or  the  lines  of  Dumou 
riez  resisted  with  less  firmness.  When  France,  in  1792,  declared 
war  with  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  she  was  far  from  possess- 
ing that  splendid  military  organization  which  the  experience  of 
a  few  revolutionary  campaigns  taught  her  to  assume,  and  which 
she  has  never  abandoned.  The  army  of  the  old  monarchy  had, 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  sunk  into  grad- 
ual decay,  both  in  numerical  force,  and  in  efficiency  of  equip 
meut  and  spirit.  The  laurels  gained  by  the  auxiliary  regiments 
which  Louis  XVL  sent  to  the  American  war,  did  but  little  to  re- 
store <he  general  tone  of  the  army.  The  insubordination  and 
lirensfc  which  the  revolt  of  the  French  guards,  and  the  participa- 
tion of  other  troops  in  many  of  the  first  excesses  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, in'roduced  among  the  soldiery,  were  soon  rapidly  dissemin« 
ateJ  through  all  the  ranks.      Under  the  Legislative  Assembly, 

•  See  Niebuhr's  Pn'facc  to  tlio  sccontl  volume  of  the  History  of  Rome, 
writtrn  in  October,  1830 


B  A  T  T  L  I:      O  y     \  A  1,  M  Y.  331 

sfcrj"  complaint  of  the  soldier  against  liis  officer,  .however  frivo- 
lous or  ill  founded,  "vvas  listened  to  with  eagerness,  and  investi- 
gated with  partiality,  on  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality. 
Discipline  accordingly  became  more  and  more  relaxed  ;  and  the 
dissolution  of  several  of  the  old  corps,  under  the  pretext  of  their 
being  tainted  with  an  aristocratic  feeling,  aggravated  the  confu- 
sion and  inefficiency  of  the  war  department.  Many  of  the  most 
eflective  regiments  during  the  last  penod  of  the  monarchy  had 
consisted  of  foreigners.  These  had  either  been  slaughtered  in 
defense  of  the  throne  against  insurrections,  like  the  Swiss,  or  had 
been  disbanded,  and  had  crossed  the  frontier  to  recruit  the  forces 
vi-hich  were  assembling  for  the  invasion  of  France.  Above  all, 
the  emigration  of  the  noblesse  had  stripped  the  French  array  of 
nearly  all  its  officers  of  high  rank,  and  of  the  greatest  portion  of 
its  subalterns.  Above  twelve  thousand  of  the  high-born  youth 
of  France,  who  had  been  trained  to  regard  military  command  as 
their  exclusive  patrimony,  and  to  whom  the  nation  had  been  ac- 
customed to  look  up  as  its  natural  guides  and  champions  in  the 
storm  of  war,  were  now  marshaled  beneath  the  banner  of  Conde 
and  the  other  emigrant  princes  for  the  overthrow  of  the  French 
armies  and  the  reduction  of  the  French  capital.  Their  successors 
in  the  French  regiments  and  brigades  had  as  yet  acquired  neither 
skill  nor  experience  ;  they  possessed  neither  self-reliance,  nor  the 
vespect  of  the  men  who  were  under  them. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  wrecks  of  the  old  army  ;  but  the 
bulk  of  the  forces  with  which  France  began  the  war  consisted 
of  raw  insurrectionary  levies,  which  were  even  less  to  be  de- 
pended on.  The  Camiagnoles,  as  the  revolutionary  volunteers 
were  called,  flocked,  indeed,  readily  to  the  frontier  from  every 
department  when  the  war  was  proclaimed,  and  the  fierce  lead- 
ers of  the  Jacobins  shouted  that  the  country  was  in  danger. 
They  were  full  of  zeal  and  courage,  "  heated  and  excited  by  the 
scenes  of  the  Revolution,  and  inflamed  by  the  florid  eloquence, 
the  songs,  dances,  and  signal-words  with  which  it  had  been  cel- 
ebrated "*  But  they  were  utterly  undisciphned,  and  turbulently 
impatient  of  superior  authority  or  systematic  control.  Many  ruf- 
fians, also,  who  were  sullied  with  participation  in  the  moot  san- 
guinary horrors  of  Paris,  joined  the  camps,  and  wore  pre-erninen1 
•like  for  misconduct  before  the  enemy  and  for  savage  insubordina 
♦  Scott,  "  Life  of  Napoleon  "  vol.  i.,  c.  viii. 


332  BATTLE     OF     VAL..IY. 

tion  agains-1  theii  own  officers.  On  one  occasion  during  the  cam- 
paign of  Valmy,  eight  battalions  of"  federates,  intoxicated  with 
massacre  and  sedition,  joined  the  foices  under  Dumouriez,  and 
fioon  threatened  to  uproot  all  discipline,  saying  openly  that  the 
ancient  officers  were  traitors,  and  that  it  was  necessary  to  purge 
the  army,  as  they  had  Paris,  of  its  aristocrats.  Dumouriez  post- 
ed these  battalions  apart  from  the  others,  placed  a  strong  for^e 
ni'  cavalry  behind  them,  and  two  pieces  of  cannon  on  their  flank 
Then,  affecting  to  review  them,  he  halted  at  the  head  of  the 
line,  surrounded  by  all  his  staff,  and  an  escort  of  a  hundred  hus- 
sars. "  Fellows,"  said  he,  "  for  I  will  not  call  you  either  citi- 
zens or  soldiers,  you  see  before  you  this  artillery,  behind  you  thia 
cavalry  ;  you  are  stained  with  crimes,  and  I  do  not  tolerate  here 
assassins  or  executioners.  I  know  that  there  are  scoundrels 
among  you  charged  to  excite  you  to  crime.  Drive  them  from 
among  you,  or  denounce  them  to  me,  for  I  shall  hold  you  re- 
sponsible for  their  conduct."* 

One  of  our  recent  historians  of  the  Revolution,  who  narrate? 
This  incident,!  thus  apostrophizes  the  French  general : 

"  Patience,  O  Dumouriez  I  this  uncertain  heap  of  shriekers 
mutineers,  were  they  once  drilled  and  inured,  will  become  a  phal 
anxed  mass  of  fighters ;  and  wheel  and  whirl  to  order  swiftly, 
like  the  wind  or  the  whirlwind  ;  tanned  mustachio-figures,  often 
barefoot,  even  bare-backed,  with  sinews  of  iron,  who  require  only 
bread  and  gunpowder  ;  very  sons  of  fire,  the  adroitest,  hastiest, 
hottest  ever  seen,  perhaps,  since  Attila's  time." 

Such  phalanxed  masses  of  fighters  did  the  Carmagnoles  ulti- 
mately become  ;  but  France  ran  a  fearful  risk  in  being  obliged 
to  rely  on  them,  when  the  process  of  their  transmutation  had 
barely  commenced. 

The  first  events,  indeed,  of  the  war  were  disastrous  and  dis- 
graceful to  France,  even  beyond  what  might  have  been  expect- 
ed from  the  chaotic  state  in  which  it  found  her  armies  as  well  as 
her  government.  In  the  hopes  of  profiting  by  the  unprepared 
state  of  Austria,  then  the  mistress  of  the  Netherlands,  the  French 
opened  the  campaign  of  1792  by  an  invasion  of  Flanders,  with 
force«>  whose  muster-rolls  showed  a  numerical  overwhelming  su- 
periority to  the  enemy,  and  seemed  to  promise  a  speedy  conquest 
of  that  old  battle-field  of  Europe.  But  the  first  flash  of  an  A  us 
•  Lainnrtine.  t  Garlyle. 


BATTLE     OF     VALMV-  33J 

til  An  sabre,  or  the  first  sound  of  an  Austrian  gun,  was  enough 
t/-  (lisconifit  the  French.  Their  first  corps,  four  thousand  strong, 
tnat  advanced  from  Lille  across  the  Irontier,  came  suddenly  upon 
a  far  inferior  detachment  of  the  Austrian  gari'ison  of  Tournay. 
INot  a  shot  was  fired,  nor  a  bayonet  leveled.  With  one  simulta- 
iKious  cry  of  panic,  the  French  broke  and  ran  headlong  back  to 
Lille,  where  they  completed  the  specimen  of  insubordination 
which  they  had  given  in  the  field  by  murdering  their  general 
and  several  of  their  chief  officers.  On  the  same  day,  another 
division  under  Biron,  mustering  ten  thousand  sabres  and  bayo- 
nets, saw  a  few  Austrian  skirmishers  reconnoitering  their  posi- 
tion. The  French  advanced  posts  had  scarcely  given  and  re- 
ceived a  volley,  and  only  a  few  balls  from  the  enemy's  field- 
pieces  had  fallen  among  the  lines,  when  two  regiments  of  French 
dragoons  raised  the  cry  "  We  are  betrayed,"  galloped  ofi,  and 
were  followed  in  disgraceful  rout  by  the  rest  of  the  whole  army. 
Similar  panics,  or  repulses  almost  equally  discreditable,  occurred 
whenever  Rochambeau,  or  Luckner,  or  La  Fayette,  the  earliest 
French  generals  in  the  war,  brought  their  troops  into  the  pres 
ence  of  the  enemy. 

Meanwhile  the  allied  sovereigns  had  gradually  collected  on 
the  Rhine  a  veteran  and  finely-disciplined  army  for  the  invasion 
of  France,  which  for  numbers,  equipment,  and  martial  reiiowii, 
both  of  generals  and  men,  was  equal  to  any  that  Germany  had 
ever  sent  forth  to  conquer.  Their  design  was  to  strike  boldly 
and  decisively  at  the  heart  of  France,  and,  penetrating  the  coun- 
try through  the  Ardennes,  to  proceed  by  Chalons  upon  Paris. 
The  obstacles  that  lay  in  their  way  seemed  insignificant.  The 
disorder  and  imbecility  of  the  French  armies  had  been  even  aug- 
mented by  the  forced  flight  of  La  Fayette  and  a  sudden  change 
of  generals.  The  only  troops  posted  on  or  near  the  track  by 
which  the  allies  were  about  to  advance  were  the  23,000  men  at 
Sedm,  A\hom  La  Fayette  had  commanded,  and  a  corps  of  20,000 
near  Metz,  the  command  of  which  had  just  been  transferred 
fr&tn  Luckner  to  Kellerman.  There  were  only  three  fortresses 
which  it  was  necessary  for  the  allies  to  capture  or  mask — Sedan, 
Longwy,  and  Verdun.  The  defenses  and  stores  of  all  these  three 
were  known  to  be  wretchedly  dismantled  and  insufficient  ;  and 
when  once  these  feeble  barriers  were  overcome  and  Chalona 
reached,  a  fertile  and  unprotected  country  seemed  to  invite  the 


334  BATTLE     OF     VALMT. 

invaders  to  that  "  military  promenade  to  Paris"   ^'hich  they  ga-y 
ly  talked  of  accomplishino;. 

At  the  end  of  July,  the  alhed  army,  having  fully  completea 
all  preparations  for  the  campaign,  broke  up  from  its  canton- 
ments, and,  marching  from  Luxembourg  upon  Longwy,  crossed 
the  French  frontier.  Sixty  thousand  Prussians,  trained  in  the 
schools,  and  many  of  them  under  the  Sye  of  the  Great  Frederic, 
heirs  of  the  glories  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  universally 
esteemed  the  best  troops  in  Europe,  marched  in  one  column 
against  the  central  point  of  attack.  Forty-five  thousand  Aus- 
trians,  the  greater  part  of  w^hom  were  picked  troops,  and  had 
served  in  the  recent  Turkish  war,  supplied  two  formidable  corps 
that  supported  the  flanks  of  the  Prussians.  There  was  also  a 
powerful  body  of  Hessians  ;  and  leagued  with  the  Germans 
against  the  Parisian  democracy  came  15,000  of  the  noblest  and 
the  bravest  among  the  sons  of  France.  In  these  corps  of  emi 
grants,  many  of  the  highest  born  of  the  French  nobility,  scions 
of  houses  Mdiose  chivalric  trophies  had  for  centuries  filled  Eu 
rope  with  renown,  served  as  rank  and  file.  They  looked  on  the 
road  to  Paris  as  the  path  which  they  were  to  carve  out  by  their 
swords  to  victory,  to  honor,  to  the  rescue  of  their  king,  to  re 
union  with  their  families,  to  the  recovery  of  their  patrimony,  and 
to  the  restoration  of  their  oi'der.* 

Over  this  imposing  army  the  allied  sovereigns  placed  as  gen- 
eralissimo the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  one  of  the  minor  reigning 
princes  of  Germany,  a  statesman  of  no  mean  capacity,  and  who 
had  acquired  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  a  military  reputation  sec- 
ond only  to  that  of  the  Great  Frederic  himself.  He  had  been  de- 
puted a  few  years  before  to  quell  the  popular  movements  which 
then  took  place  in  Holland,  and  he  had  put  down  the  attempted 
"evolution  in  that  country  with  a  promptitude  which  appeared  to 
augur  equal  success  to  the  army  that  now  marcln^d  under  his  or- 
ders on  a  similar  mis.sion  into  Finance. 

Moving  majestically  forward,  with  leisurely  deliberation,  that 
seemed  to  show  the  consciousness  of  superior  strength,  and  a 
steady  purpose  of  doing  their  work  thorouglily,  the  allies  ap- 
peared before  Longwy  on  the  20th  of  August,  and  the  dispirited 
and  despondent  garrison  opened  the  gates  of  that  fortress  to  them 
ufter  the  first  shower  of  bombs.  On  the  2d  of  September,  th« 
•  See  Scoit,  "  Life  of  Napoleon,"  vol.  i.,  c.  xi. 


BATTLE     OF     VALMY.  33  S 

fllilJ  more  Important  stronghold  ofVerdun  capitulated  after  scarce 
Ij  the  shadow  of  resistance. 

Briiuswiek's  superior  force  was  now  interposed  between  Kel* 
lerman's  troops  on  the  left  and  the  other  French  army  near  Se- 
dan, which  La  Fayette's  flight  had,  for  the  time,  left  destitute  of 
a  commander.  It  was  in  the  power  of  the  German  general,  by 
striking  with  an  overwhelming  mass  to  the  right  and  left,  to 
orush  in  succession  each  of  these  weak  armies,  and  the  allies 
might  then  have  marched  irresistible  and  unresisted  upon  Paris. 
But  at  this  crisis  Dumouriez,  the  new  commander-in-chief  of  the 
French,  arrived  at  the  camp  near  Sedan,  and  commenced  a  se- 
ries of  movements  by  which  he  reunited  the  dispersed  and  disor- 
ganized forces  of  his  country,  checked  the  Prussian  columns  a*, 
the  very  moment  when  the  last  obstacles  to  their  triumph  seen* 
ed  to  have  given  way,  and  finally  rolled  back  the  tide  of  inva 
sion  far  across  the  enemy's  frontier. 

The  French  fortresses  had  fallen;  but  nature  herself  still  of- 
fered to  brave  and  vigorous  defenders  of  the  land  the  means  of 
opposing  a  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  allies.  A  ridge  of  bro 
ken  ground,  called  the  Argonne,  extends  from  the  vicinity  of  Se- 
dan toward  the  southwest  for  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  leagues. 
The  country  of  L'Argonne  has  now  been  cleared  and  drained ; 
but  in  1792  it  was  thickly  wooded,  and  the  lower  portions  of  its 
unequal  surface  were  filled  with  rivulets  and  marshes.  It  thus 
presented  a  natural  barrier  of  from  four  or  five  leagues  broad 
which  was  absolutely  impenetrable  to  an  army,  except  by  a  fevi 
defiles,  such  as  an  inferior  force  might  easily  fortify  and  defend 
Dumouriez  succeeded  in  marching  his  army  down  from  Sedan  be 
hind  the  Argonne,  and  in  occupying  its  passes,  while  the  Prus 
sians  still  lingered  on  the  northeastern  side  of  the  forest  line 
Ordering  Kellerman  to  wheel  round  from  Metz  to  St.  Menehould 
and  the  re-enforcements  from  the  interior  and  extreme  north  also 
to  concentrate  at  that  spot,  Dumouriez  trusted  to  assemble  a  pow 
eiful  force  in  the  rear  of  the  southwest  extremity  of  the  Argonne, 
whih--  with  the  twenty-five  thousand  men  under  his  immediate 
command  he  held  the  enemy  at  bay  before  the  passes,  or  forced 
him  to  a  long  circumvolution  round  one  extremity  of  the  forest 
ridge,  during  which,  favorable  oi)portunities  of  assailing  his  flank 
were  almost  certain  to  occur.  Dumouriez  fortified  the  principal 
Jefiles.  and  boasted  of  the  Thermopyla;  which  he  had  found  foi 


336  BATTLE     OF     VALMV. 

the  invaders;  but  the  simile  was  nearly  rendered  falaliy  jom 
plete  for  the  defending  force.  A  pass,  wliich  was  thought  of  lu 
ferior  importance,  had  been  but  slightly  manned,  and  an  A  us 
tnan  corps,  under  Clairfayt,  forced  it  after  some  sharp  fighting 
Dumouriez  with  great  difficulty  saved  himself  from  being  en 
V(;loped  and  destroyed  by  the  hostile  columns  that  now  pushed 
through  the  forest.  But  instead  of  despairing  at  the  failure  3f 
his  plans,  and  falhng  back  into  the  interior,  to  bo  completely  sev- 
ered from  Kellerman's  army,  to  be  hunted  as  a  fugitive  under  the 
walls  of  Paris  by  the  victorious  Germans,  and  to  lose  all  chance 
of  ever  rallying  his  dispirited  troops,  he  resolved  to  cling  to  the 
difficult  country  in  which  the  armies  still  were  grouped,  to  force 
a  junction  with  Kellerman,  and  so  to  place  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  force  which  the  invaders  would  not  dare  to  disregard,  and 
by  which  he  might  drag  them  back  from  the  advance  on  Paris, 
which  he  had  not  been  able  to  bar.  Accordingly,  by  a  rapid 
movement  to  the  south,  during  which,  in  his  own  words,  "  France 
was  within  a  hair's-breadth  of  destruction,"  and  after  with  diffi- 
culty checking  several  panics  of  his  troops,  in  which  they  ran  by 
thousands  at  the  sight  of  a  few  Prussian  hussars,  Dumouriez  sue 
ceeded  in  establishing  his  head-quarters  in  a  strong  position  at  St. 
Menehould,  protected  by  the  marshes  and  shallows  of  the  rivera 
Aisne  and  Aube,  beyond  w'hich,  to  the  northwest,  rose  a  firm  and 
elevated  plateau,  called  Dampierre's  camp,  admirably  situated 
for  commanding  the  road  by  Chalons  to  Paris,  and  where  he  in- 
tended to  post  Kellerman's  army  so  soon  as  it  came  up.* 

The  news  of  the  retreat  of  Dumouriez  from  the  Argonne  passes, 
and  of  the  panic  flight  of  some  divisions  of  his  troops,  spreail  rap- 
idly throughout  the  country,  and  Kellerman,  who  beheved  that 
his  comrade's  army  had  been  annihilated,  and  feared  to  fall  among 
the  victorious  masses  of  tlic  Prussians,  had  halted  on  his  march 
from  Melz  when  almost  close  to  St.  Menehould.  He  had  actu 
ally  commenced  a  retrograde  movement,  when  couriers  from  his 
commander-in-chief  checked  him  from  that  fatal  course  ;  aiid  then 
continuing  to  wheel  round  the  rear  and  left  flank  of  the  troops  at 
Bt.  Menehould,  Kellerman,  with  twenty  thousand  of  the  army  ol 

*  Some  late  writers  represent  that  Brunswick  did  not  wish  to  crush 
Dumouriez.  There  is  no  sufficient  authority  for  this  insuniation,  which 
•eems  to  have  heen  first  prompted  by  a  desire  lo  soothe  the  wounJetf 
flnihtary  pride  of  the  Prussians. 


BATTLE     C  F     V  A  J   M  Y.  337 

Metz,  and  sonic  thousands  of  volunteers,  who  had  joined  him  in 
tlie  march,  made  his  appearance  to  the  west  of  Dumouriez  on  the 
very  evening  when  Westernian  and  Thouvenot,  two  of  the  stall- 
ollicers  of  Dumouriez,  galloped  in  with  the  tidings  that  BrunS' 
wick's  army  liad  come  through  tlie  upper  passes  of  the  Argonne 
in  fidl  Ibrce,  and  was  dc])loying  on  the  heights  of  La  Luue^  a 
chain  of  eminences  that  stretch  obliquely  from  southwest  1o  north- 
east, opposite  the  high  ground  which  Dumouriez  held,  and  al«c 
opposite,  but  at  a  shorter  distance  from  the  position  which  Kel- 
lerman  was  designed  to  occupy 

Tlie  allies  were  now,  in  ILot,  nearer  to  Paris  than  were  the 
French  troops  themselves  ;  but,  as  Dumouriez  had  foreseen,  Bruns- 
wick deemed  it  unsafe  to  march  upon  the  capital  with  so  large 
a  hostile  force  left  in  his  rear  between  his  advancing  columns  and 
his  base  of  operations.  The  young  King  of  Prussia,  who  was  in 
the  allied  camp,  and  the  emigrant  princes,  eagerly  advocated  an 
instant  attack  upon  the  nearest  French  general.  Kellerman  had 
laid  himself  unnecessarily  open,  by  advancing  beyond  Dampierre's 
camp,  which  Dumouriez  had  designed  for  him,  and  moving  for- 
ward across  the  Aube  to  the  plateau  of  Valmy,  a  post  inferior  hi 
strength  and  space  to  that  which  he  had  left,  and  which  brought 
him  close  upon  the  Prussian  lines,  leaving  him  separated  by  a 
-dangerous  interval  from  the  troops  under  Dumouriez  himself.  It 
peerr.ed  easy  for  the  Prussian  army  to  overwhelm  him  while  thu.s 
isolated,  and  then  they  might  surround  and  crush  Dumouriez  at 
their  leisure. 

Accordingly,  the  right  wing  of  the  allied  army  moved  forward 
in  the  gray  of  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  September  to  gain  Kel- 
lerman's  left  flank  and  rear,  and  cut  him  off  from  retreat  upon 
Olialoiis,  wliile  the  rest  of  the  army,  moving  from  the  heights  of 
\ai  Lune,  which  here  converge  seinicircularly  round  the  plateau 
of  Valmy,  were  to  assail  his  position  in  front,  and  interpose  be- 
tween him  and  Dumouriez.  An  unexpected  collision  between 
some  of  the  advanced  cavalry  on  each  side  in  the  low  ground 
warned  Kellerman  of  the  enemy's  approach.  Dumouriez  had  not 
hi'V.xi  unob.servunt  of  the  danger  of  his  comrade,  thus  isolated  aii<l 
iinolvjd,  and  he  had  ordered  up  troops  to  support  Kellerman  on 
either  flank  in  the  event  of  his  being  attacked.  These  troops, 
liowever,  moved  forward  slowly  ;  and  Kelleiman's  army  ringed 
on  the  plateau  of  Valmy  "  projected  like  a  cape  into  the  milst  of 

P 


338  BATTLE     01      VAi^Slt. 

ihe  lines  of  the  Prussian  bayonets."*  A  thick  autumnal  misl 
floated  in  waves  of  vapor  over  the  plains  and  ravines  that  lay  be- 
tween the  two  armies,  leaving  only  the  crests  and  peaks  of  the 
hills  glittering  in  the  early  light.  About  ten  o'clock  ihe  fog  be- 
gan to  clear  off,  and  then  the  French  from  their  promontory  sa'J? 
emerging  from  the  white  wreaths  of  mist,  and  glittering  in  the 
sunshine,  the  countless  Prussian  cavalry,  which  were  to  en\elop 
them  as  in  a  net  if  once  driven  from  their  position,  the  solid  col- 
umns of  the  infantry,  that  moved  forward  as  if  animated  bj  a 
single  will,  the  bristhng  batteries  of  the  artillery,  and  the  glanc- 
ing clouds  of  the  Austrian  light  troops,  fresh  from  their  contests 
with  the  Spahis  of  the  east. 

The  best  and  bravest  of  the  French  must  have  beheld  this 
spectacle  with  secret  apprehension  and  awe.  However  bold  and 
resolute  a  man  may  be  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  it  is  an  anxioufi 
and  fearful  thing  to  be  called  on  to  encounter  danger  among  com 
rades  of  whose  steadiness  you  can  feel  no  certainty.  Each  sol- 
dier of  Kellerman's  army  must  have  remembered  the  series  of 
panic  routs  which  had  hitherto  invariably  taken  place  on  the 
French  side  during  the  war,  and  must  have  cast  restless  glances 
to  the  right  and  left,  to  see  if  any  symptoms  of  wavering  began 
to  show  themselves,  and  to  calculate  how  long  it  was  likely  to 
be  before  a  general  rush  of  his  comrades  to  the  rear  would  either 
hurry  him  off  with  involuntary  disgrace,  or  leave  him  alone  and 
helpless  to  be  cut  down  by  assailing  multitudes. 

On  that  very  morning,  and  at  the  self-same  hour  in  which  the 
allied  forces  and  the  emigrants  began  to  descend  from  La  Lune 
to  the  attack  of  Valmy,  and  while  the  cannonade  was  opening 
between  the  Prussian  and  the  Revolutionary  batteries,  the  debat? 
m  the  National  Convention  at  Paris  commenced  on  the  proposal 
to  proclaim  France  a  republic. 

The  old  monarchy  hac"  little  chance  of  support  in  the  hall  of 
the  Convention  ;  but  if  its  more  eflective  advocates  at  Valmy 
had  triumphed,  there  were  yet  the  elements  existing  in  France 
lor  an  effective  revival  of  the  better  part  of  the  ancient  institu- 
tions, and  for  substituting  Reform  for  Revolution.  Only  a  few 
K^eeks  before,  numerously-signed  addresses  from  the  middle  class-. 
es  in  Paris,  Rouen,  and  other  large  cities  had  been  presented  ta 

*  See  Lamartinc,  Hist.  Girond.,  livre  xvii.  I  have  dravn  much  uf  the 
ensuing  description  from  him. 


B  A  T  T  L  IJ     O  F     V  A  L  M  ■V  .  33'j 

the  king  expressive  of  their  horror  of  the  anarchists,  and  theii 
readiness  to  uphold  the  rights  of  the  crown,  together  witli  th*? 
hberties  of  the  subject.  And  an  armed  resistance  to  the  author- 
ity of  the  Convention,  and  in  favor  of  the  Inng,  was  in  reality 
at  this  time  being  actively  organized  in  La  Vendee  and  Brittany, 
(he  importance  of  which  may  be  estimated  from  the  formidabLj 
opposition  which  the  Royalists  of  these  provinces  made  to  the 
Republican  party  at  a  later  period,  and  under  much  more  disad- 
vantageous circumstances.  It  is  a  fact  peculiarly  illustrative  of 
the  importance  of  the  battle  of  Valmy,  that  "  during  the  summer 
of  1792,  the  gentlemen  of  Brittany  entered  into  an  extensive  as- 
sociation for  the  purpose  of  rescuing  the  country  from  the  oppress- 
ive yoke  which  had  been  imposed  by  the  Parisian  demagogues. 
At  the  head  of  the  whole  was  the  Marquis  de  la  Rouarie,  one  oi 
those  remarkable  men  who  rise  into  eminence  during  the  stormy 
days  of  a  revolution,  from  conscious  ability  to  direct  its  current. 
Ardent,  impetuous,  and  enthusiastic,  he  was  first  distmguished 
in  the  American  war,  when  the  intrepidity  of  his  conduct  attract- 
ed the  admiration  of  the  Republican  troops,  and  the  same  quali- 
ties rendered  him  at  first  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  Revolution 
in  France  ;  but  when  the  atrocities  of  the  people  began,  he  es- 
poused with  equal  warmth  the  opposite  side,  and  used  the  ut- 
most efforts  to  rouse  the  noblesse  of  Brittany  against  the  plebeian 
yoke  which  had  been  imposed  upon  them  by  the  National  As- 
sembly. He  submitted  his  plan  to  the  Count  d'Artois,  and  had  or- 
ganized one  so  extensive  as  would  have  proved  extremely  formi- 
dable to  the  Convention,  if  the  retreat  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
in  Septemher,  1792,  had  not  damped  the  ardor  of  the  whole  of 
the  west  of  France,  then  ready  to  break  out  into  insurrection."* 
And  it  was  not  only  among  the  zealots  of  the  old  monarchy 
that  the  cause  of  the  king  would  then  have  found  friends.  The 
inefl'able  atrocities  of  the  September  massacres  had  just  occurred, 
and  the  reaction  produced  by  them  among  thousands  who  had 
previously  beeu  active  on  the  ultra-democratic  side  was  fresh  and 
powerful.  The  nobility  had  not  yet  been  made  utter  aliens  in 
the  eyes  of  the  nation  by  long  expatriation  and  civil  war.  There 
was  not  yet  a  generation  of  youth  educated  in  revolutionarj^  prin 
ciples,  and  knoAving  no  worship  save  that  of  mihtary  glory.  Louis 
XVL  was  just  and  humane,  and  deeply  sensible  of  the  necessity 
*  Alison,  vol    iii.,  p   323. 


SsU  BATTLE     OF     VALMY. 

of  a  gradual  extension  of  political  rights  among  all  classes  of  hii 
Bubjects.  The  Bourbon  throne,  if  rescued  in  1792,  would  have 
had  the  chances  of  stability  such  as  did  not  exist  for  it  in  181-1, 
and  seem  never  likely  to  be  found  again  in  France. 

Serving  under  Kellerman  on  that  day  was  one  who  expen- 
enced,  perhaps  the  most  deeply  of  all  men,  the  changes  for  good 
and  for  evil  which  the  French  Revolution  has  produced.  He  who, 
in  his  second  exile,  bore  the  name  of  the  Count  de  Neuilly  in  this 
country,  and  who  lately  was  Louis  Philippe,  king  of  the  French, 
figured  in  the  French  lines  at  Valmy  as  a  young  and  gallant 
officer,  cool  and  sagacious  beyond  his  years,  and  trusted  accord- 
ingly by  Kellerman  and  Dumouriez  with  an  important  station  in 
the  national  army.  The  Due  de  Chartres  (the  title  he  then  bore) 
commanded  the  French  right,  General  Valence  was  on  the  left, 
and  Kellerman  himself  took  his  post  in  the  centre,  which  was 
the  strength  and  key  of  his  position. 

Besides  these  celebrated  men  who  were  in  the  French  army, 
dud  besides  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and 
other  men  of  rank  and  power  who  were  in  the  lines  of  the  allies, 
there  was  an  indiAadual  present  at  the  battle  of  Valmy,  of  little 
political  note,  but  who  has  exercised,  and  exercises,  a  greater  in- 
fluence over  the  human  mind,  and  whose  fame  is  more  widely 
spread  than  that  of  either  duke,  or  general,  or  king.  This  was 
the  German  poet  Gothe,  then  in  early  youth,  and  who  had,  out 
of  curiosity,  accompanied  the  allied  army  on  its  march  Into  Franco 
as  a  mere  spectator.  He  has  given  us  a  curious  record  of  the 
sensations  which  he  expei'ienced  during  the  cannonade.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  many  thousands  in  the  French  ranks  then, 
like  Gothe,  felt  the  "  cannon  fever"  for  the  first  time.  The  Ger- 
man poet  says,^ 

"  I  had  heard  so  much  of  the  cannon  fever,  that  I  wanted  to 
know  what  kind  of  thing  it  was.  Ennui,  and  a  spirit  which 
every  kind  of  danger  excites  to  daring,  nay,  even  to  rashness,  in- 
duced me  to  ride  up  quite  coolly  to  th3  outwork  of  La  Lune. 
This  was  again  occupied  by  our  people  ;  but  it  presented  the 
wildest  aspect.  The  roofs  were  shot  to  pieces,  the  corn-shocks 
scattered  about,  the  bodies  of  me  i  mortally  wounded  stretched 
upon  them  here  and  there,  and  occasionally  a  spent  cannon  ball 
foil  and  rattled  among  the  ruins  of  the  tile  roofs. 

•  (Jothe's  "  r'ampaign  in  P  ancp  in  1792,"  Farie's  translation,  p.  11. 


o  ILt     OF     VAlfllJ.  o4l 

"  Gliiite  alone,  and  left  to  myself,  I  rode  away  on  the  heights 
Jo  tne  left,  and  could  plainly  survey  the  favorable  position  of  the 
French  ;  they  were  standing  in  the  form  of  a  setnicircle,  in  the 
greatest  quiet  and  security,  Kellerman,  then  on  the  left  wmg,  be- 
ing the  easiest  to  reach. 

"  I  fell  in  with  good  company  jn  the  way,  officers  of  my  ac 
quaintance,  belonging  to  the  general  stall'  and  the  regiment, 
greatly  surprised  to  find  me  here.  They  wanted  to  take  me  back 
again  with  them  ;  but  I  spoke  to  them  of  particular  objects  1 
had  in  view,  and  they  left  me,  without  farther  dissuasion,  to  my 
well-known  singular  caprice. 

"  I  had  now  arrived  quite  in  tho  region  where  the  balls  were 
playing  across  me  :  the  sound  of  them  is  curious  enough,  as  if  it 
were  composed  of  the  humming  of  tops,  the  gurgling  of  water, 
and  the  whistling  of  birds.  They  were  less  dangerous  by  reason 
of  the  wetness  of  the  ground  ;  wherever  one  fell,  it  stuck  fast. 
And  thus  my  foohsh  experimental  ride  was  secured  against  the 
danger  at  least  of  the  balls  rebounding. 

"  In  the  midst  of  these  circumstances,  I  was  soon  able  to  re- 
mark that  something  unusual  was  taking  place  within  me.  ] 
paid  close  attention  to  it,  and  still  the  sensation  can  be  described 
only  by  similitude.  It  appeared  as  if  you  were  in  some  extreme- 
ly hot  place,  and,  at  the  same  time,  quite  penetrated  by  the  heat 
of  it,  so  that  you  feel  yourself,  as  it  were,  quite  one  with  the  ele- 
ment in  which  you  are.  The  eyes  lose  nothing  of  their  strength 
or  clearness  ;  but  it  is  as  if  the  world  had  a  kind  of  brown-red 
tint,  which  makes  the  situation,  as  well  as  the  surrounding  ob- 
jects, more  impressive.  I  was  unable  to  perceive  any  agitation 
of  the  blood  ;  but  every  thing  seemed  rather  to  be  swalloM^ed  up 
in  the  glow  of  which  I  speak.  From  this,  then,  it  is  clear  in 
what  sense  this  condition  can  be  called  a  fever.  It  is  remarka- 
ble, however,  that  the  horrible  uneasy  feeling  arising  from  it  is 
produced  in  us  solely  through  the  ears.  For  the  cannon  thunder, 
the  howling  and  crashing  of  the  balls  through  the  air,  is  the  reaj 
cause  of  these  sensations. 

"After  I  had  ridden  back  and  was  in  perfect  security.  I  re- 
marked, with  surprise,  that  the  glow  was  completely  extinguish- 
ed, and  not  the  slightest  feverish  agitation  ^.'as  left  behind.  On 
the  w  hole,  this  condition  is  one  of  the  least  desirable  ;  as,  indeed 
among  my  dear  and  noble  comrades,  I  found  scarcely  one  wh^ 
expreaged  a  really  passionate  desire  to  try  it." 


34  2  UATTLEOFVALMT. 

Contrary  to  the  expectations  of  both  friends  and  foes,  the 
French  infuntry  held  their  ground  steadily  under  the  fire  of  the 
Prussian  guns,  which  thundered  on  them  from  La  Lune,  and  their 
own  artilleiy  replied  with  equal  spirit  and  greater  effect  on  the 
denser  masses  of  the  allied  army.  Thinking  that  the  Prussians 
■<rt:',re  slackening  in  their  fire,  Kellerman  formed  a  column  in 
chaririiig  order,  and  dashed  down  into  the  valley  in  the  hopes  of 
capturing  some  of  the  nearest  guns  of  the  enemy.  A  masked 
battery  opened  its  fire  on  the  French  column,  and  drove  it  back 
in  disorder,  Kellerman  having  his  horse  shot  under  him,  and  be- 
ing with  difficulty  carried  ofi'  by  his  men.  The  Privssian  columns 
now  advanced  in  turn.  The  French  artillery-men  began  to 
waver  and  desert  their  posts,  but  were  rallied  by  the  efforts  and 
example  of  their  officers,  and  Kellerman,  reorganizing  the  line  of 
his  infantry,  took  his  station  in  the  ranks  on  foot,  and  called  out 
to  his  men  to  let  the  enemy  come  close  up,  and  then  to  charge 
them  with  the  bayonet.  The  troops  caught  the  enthusiasm  of 
their  general,  and  a  cheerful  shout  of  Vive  la  nation,  taken  up 
by  one  battalion  from  another,  pealed  across  the  valley  to  the 
assailants.  The  Prussians  hesitated  from  a  charge  up  hill  against 
a  force  that  seemed  so  resolute  and  formidable  ;  they  halted  for 
a  while  in  the  hollow,  and  then  slowly  retreated  up  their  own 
side  of  the  vaJley. 

Indignant  at  being  thus  repulsed  by  such  a  foe,  the  King  of 
Prussia  formed  the  flower  of  his  men  in  person,  and,  riding  along 
the  column,  bitterly  reproached  them  with  letting  their  standard 
be  thus  humiliated.  Then  he  led  them  on  again  to  the  attack, 
marching  in  the  front  line,  and  seeing  his  staff'  mowed  down 
around  him  by  the  deadly  fire  which  the  French  artillery  reopen- 
ed. But  the  troops  sent  by  Dumouriez  were  now  co-operating 
effectually  with  Kellerman,  and  that  general's  own  men,  flushed 
by  success,  presented  a  firmer  front  than  ever.  Again  the  Prus 
e.ians  retreated,  leaving  eight  hundred  dead  behind,  and  at  night- 
fall the  French  remained  victors  on  the  heights  of  Valmy. 

All  hopes  of  crushing  the  Revolutionary  armies,  and  of  tins 
promenade  to  Paris,  had  now  vanished,  though  Brunswick  lin- 
geied  long  in  the  Argonne,  till  distress  and  sickness  Avasted  away 
hie  once  splendid  force,  and  finally  but  a  mere  wreck  of  it  re- 
crossed  the  frontier.  France,  meanwhile,  felt  that  she  possessed 
A   giant's  strength,  and  like  a  giant  did  she  use  it.     Before  th« 


a  T  NOP  SIS     OF     EVENTS,     ETu.  34  J 

close  of  that  year  all  Belgium  obeyed  the  National  CunventioK 
at  Paris,  and  the  kings  of  Europe,  after  the  lapse  of  eighteen 
centuries,  trembled  once  more  belbre  a  conquering  military  re 
public. 

Gothe's  description  of  the  cannonade  has  been  quoted.  His 
observation  to  his  comrades,  and  the  camp  of  the  allies  at  the 
«;nd  of  the  battle,  deserves  quotation  also.  It  shows  that  the 
poet  felt  (and  probably  he  alone,  of  the  thousands  there  assem- 
bled, lelt)  the  full  importance  of  that  day.  He  describes  the 
consternation  and  the  change  of  demeanor  M'hich  he  observed 
among  his  Prussian  friends  that  evening,  He  tells  us  that  "  most 
of  them  were  silent ;  and,  in  fact,  the  power  of  reflection  and 
judgment  was  wanting  to  all.  At  last  I  was  called  upon  to  say 
what  I  thought  of  the  engagement,  for  I  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  enlivening  and  amusing  the  troop  with  short  sayings.  This 
time  I  said,  '  From,  this  place  and  from  this  day  forth  com- 
mences a  nexo  era  in  the  world's  history,  and  you  can  all  say 
that  ijou  xvere lyresent  at  its  birth'  " 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Valmy,  A  ' 
1792,  AND  THE  Battle   of  Waterloo,  A.D.  1815. 

A.D.  1793.  Trial  and  execution  of  Louis  XVI.  at  Paris.  En- 
gland and  Spain  declare  war  against  France.  Royalist  war  in 
La  Vendee.     Second  invasion  of  France  by  the  allies. 

1794.  Lord  Howe's  victory  over  the  French  fleet.  Final  par- 
tition of  Poland  by  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria. 

1795.  The  French  armies,  under  Pichegru,  conquer  Holland 
Cessation  of  the  war  in  La  Vendee. 

1796.  Bonaparte  commands  the  French  army  of  Italy,  and 
gains  repeated  victories  ovei  the  Austrians. 

1797.  Victory  of  Jervis  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.  Peace  of  Cam- 
po  Formio  between  France  and  Austria.  Defeat  of  the  Dutch 
c^Camperdown  by  Admiral  Duncan. 

1798.  Rebellion  in  Ireland.  Expedition  of  the  French  undei 
Bcnapart3  to  Egypt.  Lord  Nelson  destroys  the  French  fleet  at 
the  battle  of  the  Nile. 

1799.  Renewal  of  tlie  war  between  Austria  and  France.  The 
R-ussiau  fmperor  sends  an  army  in  aid  of  Austria  under  Suwai 


344  SYNOPSIS     OF     EVENTS 

row.  The  French  are  repeatedly  defeated  h;  Itaiy.  Bi)na|a;u 
retiu'ns  from  Egypt  and  makes  himself  First  Cons  il  of  France. 
Massena  wins  the  battle  of  Zurich.  The  Ru-ssian  emperor  make« 
jteace  with  France. 

1800.  Bonaparte  passes  the  Alps,  and  defeats  the  Austrians  at 
Marengo.      Moreau  wins  the  battle  of  Hohenlinden. 

1601.  Treaty  of  Lmreville  between  France  and  Austria.  The 
battle  of  Copenhagen. 

1802.  Peace  of  Amiens. 

1803.  War  between  England  and  France  renewed. 

1804.  Napoleon  Boiiaparte  is  made  Emperor  of  France. 

1805.  Great  preparations  of  Napoleon  to  invade  England. 
Austria,  supported  by  Russia,  renews  war  with  France.  Napo 
leon  marches  into  Germany,  takes  Vienna,  and  gains  the  battle 
of  Austerlitz.  Lord  Nelson  destroys  the  combined  French  and 
Spanish  fleets,  and  is  killed  at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar. 

1806.  War  between  Prussia  and  France.  Napoleon  conquers 
Prussia  at  the  battle  of  Jena. 

1807.  Obstinate  warfare  between  the  French  and  Prussian 
armies  in  East  Prussia  and  Poland.     Peace  of  Tilsit. 

1808.  Napoleon  endeavors  to  make  his  brother  King  of  Spain. 
Rising  of  the  Spanish  nation  against  him.  England  sends  troopa 
to  aid  the  Spaniards.     Battle  of  Vimiera  and  Corunna. 

1809.  War  renewed  between  France  and  Austria.  Battles  of 
Asperne  and  Wagram.  Peace  granted  to  Austria.  Lord  Wel- 
lington's victory  of  Talavera,  in  Spain. 

1810.  Marriage  of  Napoleon  and  the  Archduchess  Maria  Lou- 
isa.     Holland  annexed  to  France. 

1812.  War  between  England  and  the  United  States.  Napo- 
leon invades  Russia.  Battle  of  Borodino.  The  French  occupy 
Moscow,  which  is  burned.  Disastrous  retreat  and  almost  total 
destnxction  of  the  great  army  of  France. 

1813.  Prussia  and  Austria  take  up  arms  again  agiinst  Francs 
Battles  of  Lutzen,  Bautzen,  Dresden,  Culm,  and  Leipsic.  The 
French  are  driven  out  of  Germany.  Lord  Wellington  gains  the 
great  battle  of  Vittoria,  which  completes  the  rescue  of  Spain 
from  France 

1814.  The  allies  invade  France  on  the  eastern,  and  Lord  W«  1- 
lington  invades  it  on  the  southern  frontier.  Battles  of  Laon, 
Montmirail,  Arcis-sur  Aube,  and  others  in  the  northea.st  of  l''rancc ; 


UEFORE     W/.TERLOO.  ?4  * 

and  of  Toulouse  in  \he  south.  Paris  surrenders  to  the  allies,  aiio 
Napoleon  abdicates.  First  restoration  ol"  the  Bourbons.  Napo- 
leon goes  to  the  Isle  of"  Elba,  which  is  assigned  to  him  by  the 
fcllies.     Treaty  of  Ghent  between  the  United  States  and  England. 

P2 


846  BATTLF     OF     WATERt^OO 


CHAPTER  XV. 

BATTLE    OF   WATERLOO,    A.D.  1815. 
Thou  first  and  last  of  fields,  king-making  victory  ! — Byiic  «. 

England  has  now  been  blessed  with  thirty -six  years  of  peace. 
A-t  no  other  period  of  her  history  can  a  similarly  long  cessation 
from  a  state  of  warfare  be  found.  It  is  true  that  our  troops  have 
had  battles  to  fight  during  this  interval  for  the  protection  and  ex 
tension  of  our  Indian  possessions  and  our  colonies,  but  these  have 
been  with  distant  and  unimportant  enemies.  The  danger  has 
never  been  brought  near  our  own  shores,  and  no  matter  of  vital 
importance  to  our  empire  has  ever  been  at  stake.  We  have  not 
had  hostilities  with  either  France,  America,  or  Russia  ;  and  when 
not  at  war  with  any  of  our  peers,  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  substan- 
tially at  peace.  There  has,  indeed,  throughout  this  long  period, 
been  no  great  war,  like  those  with  which  the  previous  history 
of  modern  Europe  abounds.  There  have  been  formidable  collis- 
ions between  particular  states,  and  there  have  been  still  more 
formidable  collisions  between  the  armed  champions  of  the  con- 
flicting principles  of  absolutism  and  democracy  ;  but  there  has 
been  no  general  war,  like  those  of  the  French  Revolution,  like 
the  American,  or  the  Seven  Years'  War,  or  like  the  war  of  the 
Spanish  Succession.  It  would  be  far  too  much  to  augur  from  this 
that  no  similar  wars  will  again  convulse  the  world  ;  but  the 
value  of  the  period  of  peace  which  Europe  has  gained  is  incal- 
culable, even  if  we  look  on  it  as  only  a  long  truce,  and  expect 
again  to  see  the  nations  of  the  earth  recur  to  what  some  philos- 
ophers have  termed  man's  natural  state  of  warfare. 

No  equal  number  of  years  can  be  found  during  which  science, 
commerce,  and  civilization  have  advanced  so  rapidly  and  so  ex- 
Unsively  as  has  been  the  case  since  1S15.  When  wc  trace  their 
progress,  especially  in  this  country,  it  is  impossible  not  to  fee)  that 
their  Vvondrous  development  has  been  mainly  due  to  the  land 
having  been  at  peace.*     Their  good  cfl'ects  can  not  be  obliterated 

♦  See  the  excellent  Introduction  to  Mr.  Charles  Rnigh  s  History  of  the 
'*  ThiJty  Years'  Peace.  ' 


BATTLt:     UK     WATER'.  CO.  347 

even  if  a  series  of  wars  were  to  rccommeace.  When  we  reflect 
on  this,  and  contrast  these  thirty-six  years  with  the  period  thai 
preceded  them — a  period  of  violence,  of  tumult,  of  unrestingly 
destructive  energy — a  period  throughout  which  the  Mealth  of 
nations  was  scattered  like  sand,  and  the  blood  of  nations  lav- 
ished like  water,  it  is  impossible  not  to  look  with  deep  interest 
on  the  final  crisis  of  that  dark  and  dreadful  epoch — the  crisie 
out  of  which  our  own  happier  cycle  of  years  has  been  evolved 
The  great  battle  which  ended  the  twenty-three  years'  war  of  the 
first  Fi'ench  Revolution,  and  which  quelled  the  man  whose  gen- 
ins  and  ambition  had  so  long  disturbed  and  desolated  the  world, 
deserves  to  be  regarded  by  us  not  only  with  peculiar  pride  as  one 
of  our  greatest  national  victories,  but  with  peculiar  gratitude  for 
the  repose  which  it  secured  for  us  and  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
human  race. 

One  good  test  for  determining  the  importance  of  Waterloo  ia 
to  ascertain  what  was  felt  by  wise  and  prudent  statesmen  before 
that  battle  respecting  the  return  of  Napoleon  from  Elba  to  the 
imperial  throne  of  France,  and  the  probable  effects  of  his  success. 
For  this  purpose,  I  will  quote  the  words,  not  of  any  of  our  vehe- 
ment anti-G  allican  politicians  of  the  school  of  Pitt,  but  of  a  lead- 
er of  our  Liberal  party,  of  a  man  whose  reputation  as  a  jurist,  a 
historian,  and  a  far-sighted  and  candid  statesman  was,  and  is,  d<. 
ervedly  high,  not  only  in  tliis  country,  but  throughout  Europe. 
Sir  James  Mackintosh  said  of  the  return  from  Elba, 

"  Was  it  in  the  power  of  language  to  describe  the  evil  ?  Wars 
which  had  raged  lor  more  than  twenty  years  throughout  Europe  • 
which  had  spread  blood  and  desolation  from  Cadiz  to  Moscow, 
and  from  Naples  to  Copenhagen  ;  which  had  wasted  the  means 
of  human  enjoyment,  and  destroyed  the  instruments  of  social  im- 
provement ;  which  threatened  to  diffuse  among  the  Em-opean  na- 
tions the  dissolute  and  ferocious  habits  of  a  predator)"  soldiery— 
at  length,  by  one  of  those  vicissitudes  which  bid  defiance  to  the 
foresight  of  man,  had  been  brought  to  a  close,  upon  the  whole, 
happy,  beyond  all  reasonable  expectation,  with  no  violent  shock 
to  national  independence,  with  some  tolerable  compromise  be- 
tween the  opinions  of  the  age  and  the  reverence  due  to  ancient 
institutions  ;  with  no  too  signal  or  mortifying  triumph  over  the 
legitimate  interests  or  avowable  feehngs  of  any  numerous  body 
fif  men,  and,  above  all,  without  those  retaliations  against  nations 


348  BATTLE     OF     WATERLOO. 

or  parties  which  heget  new  coiivulsicns,  often  as  horrible  as  thoea 
which  they  close,  and  perpetuate  revenge,  and  hatred,  and  blood 
from  age  to  age.  Europe  seemed  to  breathe  after  her  sufieriugs. 
In  the  midst  of  this  fair  prospect  and  of  these  coiiisolatory  hopes, 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  escaped  from  Elba  ;  three  small  vessels 
reached  the  coast  of  Provence  ;  their  hopes  are  instantly  dis- 
polled ;  the  work  of  our  toil  and  fortitude  is  undone  ;  the  blooJ 
of  Europe  is  spilled  in  vain — 

'  Ibi  omnis  efTusus  labor  !'  " 

The  exertions  which  the  allied  powers  made  at  this  crisis  to 
grapple  promptly  with  the  French  emperor  have  truly  been 
termed  gigantic,  and  never  M^ere  Napoleon's  genius  and  activity 
more  signally  displayed  than  in  the  celerity  and  skill  by  which 
he  brought  forward  all  the  mihtary  resources  of  France,  which 
the  reverses  of  the  three  preceding  years,  and  the  pacific  policy 
of  the  Bourbons  during  the  months  of  their  first  restoration,  had 
greatly  diminished  and  disorganized.  He  re-entered  Paris  on  the 
20th  of  March,  and  by  the  end  of  May,  besides  sending  a  force 
into  La  Vendee  to  put  down  the  armed  risings  of  the  K-oyalists 
in  that  province,  and  besides  providing  troops  under  Massena  and 
Suchet  for  the  defense  of  the  southern  frontiers  of  France,  Na- 
poleon had  an  army  assembled  in  the  northeast  for  active  opera- 
tions under  his  own  command,  which  amounted  to  between  120 
and  130,000  men,*'  Avith  a  superb  park  of  artillery,  and  in  the 
highest  possible  state  of  equipment,  discipline,  and  efficiency. 

The  approach  of  the  many  Russians,  Austrians,  Bavarians,  and 
other  foes  of  the  French  emperor  to  the  Rhine  was  necessarily 
slow  ;  but  the  two  most  active  of  the  allied  powers  had  occupied 
Belgium  with  their  troops  while  Napoleon  was  organizing  his 
forces.  Marshal  Blncher  was  there  with  116,000  Prussians,  and 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  there  also  with  about  106,000  troops, 
either  British  or  in  British  pay.f  Napoleon  determined  to  attack 
these  enemies  in  Belgium.  The  disparity  of  numbers  was  indeed 
great,  but  delay  was  sure  to  increase  the  number  of  his  ene-nios 
much  faster  than  re-enforcements  could  join  his  own  ranks.  Hu 
considered  also  that  "  the  enemy's  troops  were  cantoned  under 
the  command  of  two  generals,  and  composed  of  nations  di fieri ug 

*  See,  for  these  number's,  Sr>orno"8  "  History  of  the  Campaign  of  Wa 
lerloo."  vol.  i.,  j).  41.  t  Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  chap.  iii. 


BATTLE     OF     -WATERLOO.  'iL^ 

buth  ill  iiiteiest  and  in  feelings."*  His  own  army  wi..s  under  lii» 
own  sole  command.  It  was  composed  exclusively  ol'  French  sol- 
diers, mostly  oi'  veterans,  well  acquainted  with  their  oilicers  and 
with  each  other,  and  full  of  enthusiastic  confidence  in  their  cou:- 
niauder.  If  he  could  separate  the  Prussians  from  the  British,  so 
as  to  attack  each  in  detail,  he  felt  sanguine  of  success,  not  only 
against  these,  the  most  resolute  of  his  many  adversaries,  hut  also 
against  the  other  masses  that  were  slowly  laboring  up  against 
his  southeastern  frontiers. 

The  triple  chain  of  strong  fortresses  which  the  French  pos 
sessed  on  the  Belgian  frontier  formed  a  curtain,  behind  which 
Napoleon  was  able  to  concentrate  his  army,  and  to  conceal  till 
the  very  last  moment  the  precise  line  of  attack  which  he  intend- 
ed to  take.  On  the  other  hand,  Blucher  and  Wellington  were 
ftbliged  to  canton  their  troops  along  a  line  of  open  country  of  con- 
siderable length,  so  as  to  watch  for  the  outbreak  of  Napoleon  from 
whichever  point  of  his  chain  of  strongholds  he  should  please  t.» 
make  it.  Blucher,  with  his  army,  occupied  the  banks  of  the 
Sambre  and  the  Meuse,  from  Liege  on  his  left,  to  Charleroi  on 
his  right  ;  and  the  Duke  ol  Wellington  covered  Brussels,  his  can- 
tonments being  partly  in  front  of  that  city,  and  between  it  and 
the  French  frontier,  and  partly  on  its  west  ;  their  extreme  rignt 
being  at  Courtray  and  Tournay,  while  their  left  approached  Char- 
leroi and  communicated  Avitli  the  Prussian  right.  It  was  upon 
Charleroi  that  Napoleon  resolved  to  level  his  attack,  in  hopes  of 
severing  the  two  allied  armies  from  each  other,  and  then  pursu- 
ing his  favorite  tactic  of  assailing  each  separately  Avith  a  superior 
force  on  the  battle-field,  though  the  aggregate  of  their  numbers 
considerably  exceeded  his  own. 

On  the  1 5th  of  June  the  French  army  was  suddenly  in  motion, 
and  crossed  the  frontier  in  three  columns,  which  were  pointed 
upon  Charleroi  and  its  vicinity.  The  French  line  of  advance 
upon  Brussels,  which  city  Napoleon  resolved  to  occupy,  thus  lay 
right  through  the  centre  of  the  line  of  the  cantonments  of  tlie 
illios.  The  Prussian  general  rapidly  concentrated  his  forces, 
jailing  them  in  from  the  left,  and  the  English  general  ccncen 
Irated  his,  calling  them  in  from  the  'ight  toward  the  menaced 
centre  of  the  combined  position.  On  the  morning  of  the  IGth, 
Blucher  was  in  position  at  Ligny,  to  the  northeast  of  Charleroi 
*  See  Montholon's  "  Memoirs,"  p.  45 


350  r,  ATTLE     OF     WATEULOO. 

with  60,01)0  men.  Welliugto.i's  troops  were  concentrating  at 
Q^uatre  Bras,  which  lies  due  north  of  Charleroi,  and  is  about  nine 
miles  from  Ligny.  On  the  16th,  Napoleon  in  person  attacked 
Blucher,  and,  after  a  long  and  obstinate  battle,  defeated  him,  and 
compelled  the  Prussian  army  to  retire  northward  toward  Wavre 
On  the  same  day.  Marshal  Ney,  with  a  large  pai-t  of  the  French 
army,  attacked  the  English  troops  at  duatre  Bras,  and  a  very 
severe  engagement  took  place,  in  which  Ney  failed  in  defeating 
the  British,  but  succeeded  in  preventing  their  sending  any  help 
to  Blucher,  who  was  being  beaten  by  the  emperor  at  Ligny.  On 
the  news  of  Blucher's  defeat  at  Ligny  reacliing  Wellington,  he 
foresaw  that  the  emperor's  army  would  now  be  directed  upon  him, 
and  he  accordingly  retreated  in  order  to  restore  his  commmiica- 
tions  with  his  ally,  which  would  have  been  dislocated  by  th" 
Prussians  falling  back  from  Ligny  to  Wavre  if  the  English  had 
remained  in  advance  at  duatre  Bras.  During  the  17th,  there 
fore,  WelHngton  retreated,  being  pursued,  but  little  molested  by 
the  main  French  army,  over  about  half  the  space  between  duatre 
Bras  and  Brussels.  This  brought  him  again  parallel,  on  a  l,m 
running  from  west  to  east,  with  Blucher,  who  was  at  Wavre. 
Having  ascertained  that  the  Prussian  army,  though  beaten  on  tho 
16th,  was  not  broken,  and  having  received  a  promise  from  its  gen- 
eral to  march  to  his  assistance,  Wellington  determined  to  halt, 
and  to  give  battle  to  the  French  emperor  in  the  position,  which, 
from  a  village  in  its  neighborhood,  has  received  the  ever-memora 
b'.e  name  of  the  field  of  Waterloo. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  "  Life  of  Napoleon,"  remarks  of  Water- 
'.00  that  "  the  scene  of  this  celebrated  action  must  be  familiar  to 
most  readers  either  from  description  or  recollection."  The  nar- 
ratives of  Sir  Walter  himself,  of  Alison,  Gleig,  Siborne,  and  others, 
must  have  made  the  events  of  the  battle  almost  equally  well 
known.  I  might  perhaps,  content  myself  with  referring  to  their 
pages,  and  avoid  tne  difficult  task  of  dealing  with  a  subject  which 
has  already  been  discussed  so  copiously,  so  clearly,  and  so  elo- 
quently by  o'.hcrs.  In  particular,  the  description  by  Captain  Si- 
borne  of  the  Waterloo  campaign  is  so  full  and  so  minute,  so  scru 
julously  accurate,  and,  at  the  same  lime,  so  spirited  and  graphic 
that  it  will  long  defy  the  competition  of  far  abler  pens  than  mine 
I  shall  only  aim  at  giving  a  general  idea  of  the  main  features  o; 
tliift  p;reat  event,  of  this  discrowning  and  crowning  victory. 


BATIL  li     OK     WATKKLUC  35i 

When,  df'tjr  a  very  hard-fought  and  a  loiig-doubiful  day,  Na 
poleoii  liad  succeeded  in  driving  back  the  Prussian  army  frora 
Ligny,  and  had  resolved  on  marching  himself  to  assail  the  Eng- 
plish,  he  sent,  on  the  17th,  Marshal  Grouchy  with  30,000  men 
to  pursue  the  defeated  Prussians,  and  to  prevent  their  marching 
to  aid  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Great  recriminations  passed  aft- 
erward between  the  marshal  and  the  emperor  as  to  how  this  duty 
was  attempted  to  be  performed,  and  the  reasons  why  Grouchy 
failed  on  the  18th  to  arrest  the  lateral  movement  of  the  Prussian 
troops  from  Wavre  toward  Waterloo.  It  may  be  sufficient  to  re 
mark  here  that  Grouchy  was  not  sent  in  pursuit  of  Blucher  till 
late  on  the  17th,  and  that  the  force  given  to  him  was  insufficient 
to  make  head  against  the  whole  Prussian  army  ;  for  Blucher's 
men,  thougn  they  were  heaten  back,  and  suffiired  severe  loss  at 
Ligny,  were  neither  routed  nor  disheartened  ;  and  they  were 
joined  at  Wavre  by  a  large  division  of  their  comrades  under 
General  Bulow,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the  battle  of  the  16th, 
and  who  were  fresh  for  the  march  to  Waterloo  against  the  French 
on  the  18th.  But  the  failure  of  Grouchy  was  in  truth  mainly 
owing  to  the  indomitable  heroism  of  Blucher  himself,  who,  though 
severely  injured  in  the  battle  at  Ligny,  was  as  energetic  and  act- 
ive as  ever  in  bringing  his  men  into  action  again,  and  who  had 
the  resolution  to  expose  a  part  of  his  army,  under  Thielman,  to 
be  overwhelmed  by  Grouchy  at  Wavre  on  the  18th,  while  he 
urged  the  march  of  the  mass  of  his  troops  upon  Waterloo.  "  I< 
is  not  at  Wavre,  but  at  Waterloo,"  said  the  old  field-marshal, 
"  that  the  campaign  is  to  be  decided  ;"  and  he  risked  a  detach- 
ment, and  won  the  campaign  accordingly.  WeUington  and  Blu- 
cher trusted  each  other  as  cordially,  and  co-operated  as  zealously. 
as  formerly  had  been  the  case  with  Marlborough  and  Eugene. 
It  was  m  full  reliance  on  Blucher's  promise  to  join  him  that  the 
duke  stood  his  ground  and  fought  at  Waterloo  ;  and  those  who 
have  ventured  to  impugn  the  duke's  capacity  as  a  general  ought 
to  have  had  common  sense  enough  to  perceive  that  to  charge  the 
duke  with  having  won  the  battle  of  Waterloo  by  the  help  of  the 
Pnissians  is  really  to  say  that  he  won  it  by  the  very  means  on 
which  he  relied,  and  without  the  expectation  of  which  the  battle 
would  not  have  been  fought. 

Napohon  himself  has  found  fault  with  Wellington*  for  not  hav 
•  See  Montholon's   'Memoirs."  vol.  iv.,  p  44 


362  BATTLE     OF     WATERLOO. 

ing  retreated  beyond  Waterloo.  The  short  answer  may  be,  than 
the  duke  had  reason  to  expect  that  his  army  coukl  singly  resist 
the  French  at  Waterloo  until  the  Prussians  came  up,  and  thac. 
on  the  Prussians  joining,  there  weuld  be  a  sufficient  force,  united 
under  himself  and  Blucher,  for  completely  overwhelming  the  en- 
emy. And  while  Napoleon  thus  censures  his  great  adversary, 
he  involuntarily  bears  the  highest  possible  testimony  to  the  mil- 
itary character  of  the  English,  and  proves  decisively  of  what 
paramount  importance  was  the  battle  to  which  he  challsnged 
his  fearless  opponent.  Napoleon  asks,  "If  the  English  army 
had  been  beaten  oA  Waterloo,  what  would  have  been  the  Hse  of 
those  numeroics  bodies  of  troojjs,  of  Prussians,  Austrians,  Get- 
mans,  and  Spaniards,  ivhich  locre  advancing  bij  forced  march- 
es to  the  Rhine,  the  Alps,  and  the  Pyrenees  ?"* 

The  strength  of  the  army  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Wa 
terloo  was  49,608  infantry,  12,402  cavalry,  and  5645  artillery 
men,  with  156  guns.f  But  of  this  total  of  67,655  men,  scarcely 
24,000  were  British,  a  circumstance  of  very  serious  importance 
if  Napoleon's  own  estimate  of  the  relative  value  of  troops  of  difier 
ent  nations  is  to  be  taken.  In  the  emperor's  own  words,  speaking 
uf  this  campaign,  "  A  French  soldier  would  not  be  equal  to  more 
than  one  English  soldier,  but  he  would  not  be  afraid  to  meet  two 
Dutchmen,  Prussians,  or  soldiers  of  the  Confederation. "J  There 
were  about  6000  men  of  the  old  German  Legion  with  the  duke  ; 
these  were  veteran  troops,  and  of  excellent  quality.  But  the  rest 
of  the  army  was  made  up  of  Hanoverians,  Brunswickers,  Nassau- 
ers,  Dutch,  and  Belgians,  many  of  whom  were  tried  soldiers,  and 
fought  well,  but  many  had  been  lately  levied,  and  not  a  few  were 
justly  suspected  of  a  strong  wish  to  fight  under  the  French  eagles 
rather  than  against  them. 

Napoleon's  army  at  Waterloo  consisted  of  48,950  infantry. 
15,765  cavaliy,  7232  artillery-men,  being  a  total  of  71,947  men 
and  246  guns.^  They  were  the  elite  of  the  national  forces  oi 
France  ;  and  of  all  the  numerous  gallant  armies  which  that  mar- 
tial  land  has  poured  forth,  never  was  there  one  braver,  or  bettei 
ilisiiplined,  or  better  led,  than  the  host  that  took  up  its  position 
a1  Waterloo  on.  tne  morning  of  the  18th  of  .Time,  1815. 

Perhaps  those  who  have  not  seen  tlic  field  of  battle  at  Watei 

♦  Montlioloti's  "  Memoirs,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  44.  t  Siborne,  vol.  i ,  p.  37G 

t  Montliolon's  •'  Memoirs,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  41.  4  See  Sihcriie,  vt  supra 


BATTLE     OF     WAT  EK  LOO.  i5'd 

liHi,  or  the  admirable  model  of  the  ground  aiiu  cf  the  ^onflictmg 
armies  which  was  executed  by  Captain  SiboruL,  may  gain  a  gen 
erally  accurate  idea  of  the  localities  by  picturing  to  themselves 
a  valley  between  two  and  three  miles  long,  if  various  breadths 
at  dilicreut  points,  but  generally  not  exceeding  half  a  mile.  On 
«ach  side  of  the  valley  there  is  a  winding  chain  of  low  hills,  run 
1  i'aig  somewhat  parallel  with  each  other.  The  declivity  from 
each  of  these  ranges  of  hills  to  the  intervening  valley  is  gentle 
but  not  uniform,  the  undulations  of  the  ground  being  frequent  and 
considerable.  The  English  army  was  posted  on  the  northern, 
and  the  French  army  occupied  the  southern  ridge.  The  artillery 
of  each  side  thundered  at  the  other  from  their  respective  heights 
"throughout  the  day,  and  the  charges  of  horse  and  foot  were  made 
across  the  valley  that  has  been  described.  The  village  of  Mont 
St.  Jean  is  situate  a  little  behind  the  centre  of  the  northern  chain 
of  hills,  and  the  village  of  La  Belle  Alliance  is  close  behind  the 
centre  of  the  southern  ridge.  The  high  road  from  Charleroi  to 
Brussels  runs  through  both  these  villages,  and  bisects,  therefore, 
both  the  English  and  the  French  positions.  The  line  of  thi<; 
road  was  the  line  of  Napoleon's  intended  advance  on  Brussels. 

There  are  some  other  local  particulars  connected  with  the  sit- 
uation of  each  army  which  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind.  The 
strength  of  the  British  position  did  not  consist  merely  in  the  oc- 
cupation of  a  ridge  of  high  ground.  A  village  and  ravine,  called 
Merk  Braine,  on  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  extreme  right,  secured 
him  from  his  flardc  being  turned  on  that  side  ;  and  on  his  extremi 
left,  two  little  hamlets,  called  La  Haye  and  Papillote,  gave  t> 
similar  though  a  slighter  protection.  It  was,  however,  less  nee 
essary  to  provide  for  this  extremity  of  the  position,  as  it  was  on 
this  (the  eastern)  side  that  the  Prussians  were  coming  up.  Be- 
hind the  whole  British  position  is  the  great  and  extensive  forest 
^f  Soignies.  As  no  attempt  was  made  by  the  French  to  turn 
Either  of  the  English  flanks,  and  the  battle  was  a  day  of  straight 
forward  fighting,  it  is  chiefly  important  to  see  what  posts  there 
wrre  in  front  of  the  British  lino  of  hills  of  which  advantage  could 
be  taken  either  to  repel  or  facilitate  an  attack  ;  and  it  will  be  seen 
that  there  were  two,  and  that  each  was  of  very  great  importance 
m  \hi  action.  In  front  of  the  British  right,  that  is  to  say,  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  valley  toward  its  western  end,  there  stood 
an  old-fashioned  Flemish  farm-house  called  Goumout  or  Hougou- 


35  1  BATTLE     OF     ■\\'  A  T  K  R  L  0  O 

mciit,  Avith  oat-buildiiigs  and  a  garden,  and  with  a  copse  of  boech 
tiees  oi"  about  two  acres  in  extent  round  it.  Tliis  was  strongly 
garrisoned  by  the  allied  troops  ;  and  while  it  was  in  their  posses* 
Bion,  it  Wiis  difficult  for  the  enemy  to  press  on  and  force  the  Brit- 
ish right  wing.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  enemy  could  occupy 
it,  it  would  be  difficult  for  that  wing  to  keep  its  ground  on  the 
heights,  with  a  strong  post  held  adversely  in  its  immediate  front, 
being  one  that  would  give  much  shelter  to  the  enemy's  marks- 
men, and  great  facilities  for  the  sudden  concentration  of  attacking 
columns.  Almost  immediately  in  front  of  the  British  centre,  and 
not  so  far  down  the  slope  as  Hougoumont,  there  was  another  farm- 
house, of  a  smaller  size,  called  La  Haye  Sainte,*  which  was  also 
held  by  the  British  troops,  and  the  occupation  of  which  was  found 
to  be  of  very  serious  consequence. 

With  respect  to  the  French  position,  the  principal  feature  to  be 
noticed  is  the  village  of  Planchenoit,  which  lay  a  little  in  the  rear 
of  their  right  (i.  e.,  on  the  eastern  side),  and  M'hich  proved  to  be 
of  great  importance  in  aiding  them  to  check  the  advance  of  the 
Prussians. 

As  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  Prussians,  on  the  morning 
of  the  18th,  were  at  Wavre,  about  twelve  miles  to  the  east  of  the 
field  of  battle  at  Waterloo.  The  junction  of  Bulow's  division  had 
more  than  made  up  for  the  loss  sustained  at  Ligny  ;  and  leaving 
Thielman,  with  about  17,000  men,  to  hold  his  ground  as  he  best 
could  against  the  attack  which  Grouchy  was  about  to  make  on 
Wavre,  Bulow  and  Blucher  moved  with  the  rest  of  the  Prussians 
upon  Waterloo.  It  was  calculated  that  they  would  be  there  by 
three  o'clock  ;  but  the  extremely  difficult  nature  of  the  ground 
which  they  had  to  traverse,  rendered  worse  by  the  torrents  of 
rain  that  had  just  fallen,  delayed  them  long  on  their  twelve 
miles'  march. 

The  night  of  the  17th  was  wet  and  stormy  ;  and  when  the 
Jawn  of  the  memorable  18th  of  June  broke,  the  rain  was  still 
descending  heavily.  The  French  and  British  armies  rose  from 
tlicir  dreary  bivouacs  and  began  to  form,  each  on  the  high  ground 
which  it  occupied.  Toward  nine  the  weather  grew  clearer,  and 
each  army  was  able  to  watcli  *.he  position  and  .arrangements  of 
Uie  other  on  the  opposite  side  ol'  the  valley. 

»  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  hamlet  of  La  Have,  at  the  extrerar. 
eft  of  the  British  line. 


I;.\TTLE     OF     \VATKK)-00.  ot)?i 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  drew  up  his  infantry  in  two  lines,  tho 
second  line  being  composed  principally  of  Dutch  and  Belgian 
troops,  whose  fidelity  was  doubtful,  and  of  those  regiments  of 
other  nations  which  had  suflcred  most  severely  at  Ciuatre  Bras 
on  the  IGth.  This  second  line  was  posted  on  the  northern  de- 
clivity of  the  hills,  so  as  to  be  sheltered  from  the  French  cannon- 
ad  j.  The  cavalry  was  stationed  at  intervals  along  the  line  in 
the  rear,  the  largest  force  of  horse  being  collected  on  the  left  cf 
the  centre,  to  the  oast  of  the  Charleroi  road.  On  the  o})posite 
neights  the  French  army  was  drawn  up  in  two  general  hnee, 
with  tlie  entire  force  of  the  Imperial  Guards,  caA^alry  as  w^ell  as 
infantry,  in  rear  of  the  centre,  as  a  reserve.  English  military 
critics  have  highly  eulogized  the  admirable  arrangement  which 
Napoleon  made  of  his  forces  of  each  arm,  so  as  to  give  him  the 
most  ample  means  of  sustaining,  by  an  immediate  and  sufficient 
support,  any  attack,  from  whatever  point  he  might  direct  it,  and 
of  drawing  promptly  together  a  strong  foi^e,  to  resist  any  attack 
that  might  be  made  on  himself  in  any  part  <3f  the  field.*  When 
his  troops  were  all  arrayed,  he  rode  along  the  lines,  receiving 
every  where  the  most  enthusiastic  cheers  from  his  men,  of  whose 
entire  devotion  to  him  his  assurance  was  now  doubly  sure.  On 
the  southern  side  of  the  valley  the  duke's  army  was  also  arrayed, 
and  ready  to  meet  the  menaced  attack. 

"  The  two  armies  were  now  fairly  in  presence  of  each  other, 
and  their  mutual  observation  was  governed  by  the  most  intense 
interest  and  the  most  scrutinizing  anxiety.  In  a  stiU  greater  de- 
gree did  these  feelings  actuate  their  commanders,  while  watch- 
ing each  other's  preparatory  movements,  and  minutely  scanning 
the  surface  of  the  arena  on  which  tactical  skill,  habitual  prowess, 
physical  strength,  and  moral  courage  were  to  decide,  not  alone 
thoir  own,  but,  in  all  probability,  the  fate  of  Europe.  Ap^rt 
from  national  interests  and  considerations,  and  viewed  solely  in 
connection  with  the  opposite  characters  of  the  two  illustrious 
chiel's,  the  approaching  contest  was  contemplated  with  anxious 
solicitude  by  the  whole  military  world.  Need  this  create  sur- 
prise when  we  reflect  that  the  struggle  was  one  for  mastery  be- 
tween the  far-famed  conqueror  of  Italy  and  the  victorious  liber- 
ator of  the  Peninsula ;  between  the  triumphant  vanquisher  of 
Eastern  Europe,  and  the  bold  and  successful  invader  of  ihe  soutk 
*  Siborne,  vol.  i.,  p.  376. 


■>'^6  BAl'lLK      OF     WA'PK    .00. 

ofFrancrl  Never  M'as  th'i  ijsae  of  a  sius'le  battle  loukea  loi 
wivd  to  as  involving  consequences  of  such  vast  importance — ol 
such  universal  influence."* 

It  was  appro  aching  noon  hefore  the  action  commenced.  Na 
poleon,  in  his  memoirs,  gives  as  the  reason  for  this  delay,  the 
miry  state  of  the  ground  through  the  heavy  rain  of  the  preced- 
ing night  and  day,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for  cavahy  01 
artillery  to  maneuver  on  it  till  a  few  hours  of  dry  weather  had 
given  it  its  natural  consistency.  It  has  been  supposed,  also,  that 
he  trusted  to  the  effect  which  the  sight  of  the  imposing  array  of 
his  oMii  forces  was  likely  to  produce  on  part  of  the  allied  army. 
The  Belgian  regiments  had  been  tampered  with  ;  and  Napoleon 
had  well  founded  hopes  of  seeing  them  quit  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton in  a  body,  and  range  themselves  under  his  own  eagles.  The 
duke,  however,  who  knew  and  did  not  trust  them,  had  guarded 
against  the  risk  of  this  by  breaking  up  the  corps  of  Belgians,  and 
distributing  them  in  separate  regiments  among  troops  on  whom 
he  could  rely.f 

At  last,  at  about  half  past  eleven  o'clock,  Napoleon  began  the 
battle  by  directing  a  powerful  force  from  his  left  wing  under  hia 
brother,  Prince  Jerome,  to  attack  Hougoumont.  Column  after 
column  of  the  French  now  descended  from  the  west  of  the  south- 
ern heights,  and  assailed  that  post  with  fiery  valor,  which  was 
encountered  with  the  most  determined  bravery.  The  French 
won  the  copse  rdiind  the  house,  but  a  party  of  the  British  Guards 
held  the  house  it.self  throughout  the  day.  Amid  shell  and  shot, 
and  the  blazing  fragments  of  part  of  the  buildings,  this  obstinate 
contest  was  continued.  But  still  the  English  held  Hougoumont, 
though  the  French  occasionally  moved  forward  in  such  numbers 
as  enabled  them  to  surround  and  mask  this  post  with  part  of 
their  troops  from  their  left  wing,  while  others  pressed  onward  up 
^he  slope,  and  assailed  the  British  right. 

The  cannonade,  which  commenced  at  first  between  the  Brit- 
ish right  and  the  French  left,  in  consequence  of  the  attack  on 
Hougoumont,  soon  became  general  along  both  lines  ;  and  about 
c^ne  o'clock  Napoleon  directed  a  grand  attack  to  be  made  undei 
Marshal  Ncy  upon  the  centre  and  left  wing  of  the  allied  army. 
For  this  purpose  four  columns  of  infantry,  amounting  to  about 
18,000  men,  were  collected,  supported  by  a  strong  division  of 
*  Sihorne,  vol.  i  ,  p.  377.  +  Ibid  ,  p.  373 


BATTLE     OF     WATERLOO.  357 

■eavalry  under  the  celebrated  Kellerinan,  and  seven ty-fuur  i^na 
were  broiigVit  forward  ready  to  be  posted  on  the  ridge  of  a  little 
undulation  of  tlie  ground  in  the  interval  between  the  two  main 
ranges  of  heights,  so  as  to  bring  their  fire  to  bear  on  the  duke'a 
line  at  a  range  of  abont  seven  hundred  yards.  By  the  combined 
assault  of  these  formidable  forces,  led  on  by  Ney,  "  the  bravest 
of  the  brave,''  Napoleon  hoped  to  force  the  left  centre  of  the  Biit 
[fell  po.iition,  to  take  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  then,  pres.sing  forward, 
to  occupy  also  the  farm  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  He  then  could  cut 
the  mass  of  Wellington's  troops  oft"  from  their  line  of  retreat  upon 
Brussels,  and  from  their  own  left,  and  also  completely  sever  them 
from  any  Prussian  troops  that  might  be  approaching. 

The  columns  destined  for  this  great  and  decisive  operation  de- 
scended majestically  from  the  French  range  of  hills,  and  gained 
the  ridge  of  the  intervening  eminence,  on  which  the  batteries 
that  supported  them  M'ere  now  ranged.  As  the  columns  descend- 
ed again  from  this  eminence,  the  seventy-four  guns  opened  over 
their  heads  with  terrible  efl'c-ct  upon  the  troops  of  the  allies  that 
were  stationed  on  the  heights  to  the  left  of  the  Charleroi  road. 
One  of  the  French  columns  kept  to  the  east,  and  attacked  the  ex- 
treme left  of  the  allies  ;  the  other  three  continued  to  move  rapid- 
ly forward  upon  the  left  centre  of  the  allied  position.  The  front 
line  of  the  allies  here  was  composed  of  Bylant's  brigade  of  Dutch 
and  Belgians.  As  the  French  columns  moved  up  the  southward 
slope  of  the  height  on  which  the  Dutch  and  Belgians  stood,  and 
the  skirmishers  in  advance  began  to  open  their  fire,  Bylant's  en- 
tire brigade  turned  and  fled  in  disgraceful  and  disorderly  panic  ; 
but  there  were  men  more  worthy  of  the  name  behind. 

The  second  line  of  the  allies  here  consisted  of  two  brigades  of 
English  infantry,  which  had  suflered  severely  at  Q-uatre  Bras. 
But  they  were  under  Picton,  and  not  even  Ney  himself  surpassed 
in  resolute  bravery  that  stern  and  fieiy  spirit.  Picton  brought 
his  two  brigades  forward,  side  by  side,  in  a  thin  two-deep  line. 
rims  joined  together,  they  were  not  3000  strong.  With  tlieso 
Ficton  had  to  make  head  against  the  three  victorious  French  col- 
amns,  upward  of  four  times  that  strength,  and  who,  encouraged 
by  the  easy  rout  of  the  Dutch  and  Belgians,  uow  came  conlid(ut- 
ly  ovev  the  ridge  of  the  hill.  The  British  infantry  stood  firm; 
and  as  the  French  halted  aud  began  to  deploy  into  line,  Picton 
poized  the  critical  moment :  a  close  and  deadly  volley  was  thrown 


503  BATTLE     OF     V/ATERLOO. 

in  upon  them,  and  then  "with  a  fierce  hurrah  the  Uritish  »lasbed  in 
with  the  bayonet.  The  French  reeled  back  in  confusion  ;  and  a.i 
they  staggered  down  the  hill,  a  brigade  of  the  English  cavalry 
rode  in  on  them,  cutting  them  down  by  whole  battalions,  and 
taking  2000  prisoners.  The  British  cavalry  galloped  forward 
and  sabred  the  artillery-men  of  Ney's  seventy-four  advanced 
guns ;  and  then  cutting  the  traces  and  the  throats  of  the  horses, 
rendered  these  guns  totally  useless  to  the  French  throughout  the 
remainder  of  the  day.  In  the  excitement  of  success,  the  English 
cavalr'  .ontinued  to  press  on,  but  were  charged  in  their  turn,  and 
driven  oack  with  severe  loss  by  Milhaud's  cuirassiers. 

This  great  attack  (in  repelling  which  the  brave  Picton  had  fall- 
en) had  now  completely  failed ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  pow 
erful  body  of  French  cuirassiers,  who  were  advancing  along  the 
right  of  the  Charlerci  road,  had  been  fairly  beaten  after  a  close 
hand-to-hand  fight  by  the  heavy  cavalry  of  the  English  house- 
hold brigade.  Hougoumont  was  still  being  assailed,  and  was 
successfully  resisting.  Troops  were  now  beginning  to  appear  at 
the  edge  of  the  horizon  on  Napoleon's  right,  which  he  too  well 
knew  to  be  Prussian,  though  he  endeavored  to  persuade  his  fol- 
lowers that  they  were  Grouchy's  men  coming  to  aid  them.  It 
was  now  about  half  past  three  o'clock  ;  and  though  Wellington's 
army  had  suffered  severely  by  the  unremitting  cannonade  and  in 
the  late  desperate  encounter,  no  part  of  the  British  position  had 
been  forced.  Napoleon  next  determined  to  try  M'hat  efl'ect  he 
could  produce  on  the  British  centre  and  right  by  charges  of  hia 
splendid  cavalry,  brought  on  in  such  force  that  the  duke's  caval- 
ry could  not  check  them.  Fresh  troops  were  at  the  same  time 
sent  to  assail  La  Haye  Sainte  and  Hougoumont,  the  possession 
of  these  posts  being  the  emperor's  unceasing  object.  Squadron 
after  squadron  of  the  French  cuirassiers  accordingly  ascended 
the  slopes  on  the  duke's  right,  and  rode  forward  with  dauntless 
courage  against  the  batteries  of  the  British  artillery  in  that  part 
of  the  field.  The  artillery-men  were  driven  from  their  guns,  and 
the  cuirassiers  cheered  loudly  at  their  supposed  triumph.  But 
the  duke  had  formed  his  infantry  in  squares,  and  the  cuirassiers 
charged  in  vain  against  the  impenetrable  hedges  of  bayonets, 
while  the  fire  from  the  inner  ranks  of  the  squares  told  with  ter- 
rible edect  on  their  own  squadrons.  Time  after  time  they  rode 
forward  wilh  invariably  the  same  result ;    and  as  they  receded 


BATTLE     OF     WATKKLOO.  35^ 

from  each  attack,  the  British  artillery-moa  rushed  forward  Iroir, 
the  centres  of  the  squares,  where  they  had  taken  refuge,  and 
pUed  their  guns  on  the  retiring  horsemen.  Nearly  the  whole  of 
Napoleon's  magnificent  body  of  heavy  cavalry  was  destroyed  in 
these  fruitless  attempts  upon  the  British  right.  But  in  another 
part  of  the  field  fortune  favored  him  for  a  time.  Donzelot's  in- 
fantry took  La  Haye  Sainte  between  six  and  seven  o'clock,  and 
ths  means  were  now  given  for  organizing  another  formidable  at- 
tack on  the  centre  of  the  allies. 

There  was  no  time  to  be  lost :  Blucher  and  Bulow  vvere  be- 
ginning tj  press  upon  the  French  right ;  as  early  as  five  o'clock, 
Napoleon  had  been  obliged  to  detach  Lobau's  infantry  and  Do- 
mont's  horse  to  check  these  new  enemies.  This  was  dope  for  a 
time  ;  but,  as  large  numbers  of  the  Prussians  came  on  the  field, 
they  turned  Lobau's  left,  and  sent  a  strong  force  to  seize  the  vil- 
lage of  Planchenoit,  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  lay  in  the 
rear  of  the  French  right.  Napoleon  Avas  now  obliged  to  send 
his  Young  Guard  to  occupy  that  village,  which  was  accordMig- 
ly  held  by  them  with  great  gallantry  against  the  reiterated  as- 
saults of  the  Prussian  left  under  Bulow.  But  the  force  remain- 
ing under  Napoleon  was  now  numerically  inferior  to  that  under 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  which  he  had  been  assailing  throughout 
the  day,  without  gaining  any  other  advantage  than  the  capture 
of  La  Haye  Sainte.  It  is  true  that,  owing  to  the  gross  miscon 
duct  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Dutch  and  Belgian  troops,  the 
duke  was  obliged  to  rely  exclusively  on  his  English  and  Germar 
soldiers,  and  the  ranks  of  these  had  been  fearfully  thinned  ;  but 
the  survivors  stood  their  ground  heroically,  and  still  opposed  a 
resolute  front  to  every  forward  movement  of  their  enemies.  Na- 
poleon had  then  the  means  of  effecting  a  retreat.  His  Old 
Guard  had  yet  taken  no  part  in  the  action.  Under  cover  of  it, 
he  might  have  withdrawn  his  shattered  forces  and  retired  upon 
the  French  frontier.  But  this  would  only  have  given  the  En- 
glish and  Prussians  the  opportunity  of  completing  their  junction  ; 
and  he  knew  that  other  armies  were  fast  coming  up  to  aid  them 
in  a  march  upon  Paris,  if  he  should  succeed  in  avoiding  an  en- 
counter with  them,  and  retreating  upon  the  capital.  A  victory 
at  Waterloo  was  his  only  alternative  from  utter  ruin,  ard  he  de« 
termined  to  employ  his  Guard  in  one  bold  stioke  more  to  mak< 
that  victory  his  own. 


SbO  BATTLE     OF     WATEI.  LOO. 

Between  seven  and  eight  o'clock  the  infantry  of  the  Old 
(ruaid  Avas  formed  into  two  columns,  on  the  declivity  near  La 
Belle  Alliance.  Ney  was  placed  at  their  head.  Napoleon  him- 
self rode  forward  to  a  spot  by  which  his  veterans  were  to  pass  ; 
and  as  they  approached  he  raised  his  arm,  and  pointed  to  the  pO" 
eition  of  the  allies,  as  if  to  tell  them  that  their  path  lay  there 
They  ansM'ered  with  loud  cries  of  "Vive  I'Empereur  I"  and  da- 
fcended  the  hill  from  their  ow^n  side  into  that  "valley  of  th 
gladow  of  death,"  while  their  batteries  thundered  with  redovib- 
led  vigor  ever  their  heads  upon  the  British  line.  The  line  of 
march  of  the  columns  of  the  Guard  was  directed  between  Hou- 
(.oumont  and  La  Haye  Sainte,  against  the  British  right  centre  ; 
and  at  the  same  time,  Donzelot  and  the  French,  who  had  pos- 
session of  La  Haye  Sainte,  commenced  a  fierce  attack  upon  the 
I'-ritish  centre,  a  little  more  to  its  left.  This  part  of  the  battle 
has  drawn  less  attention  than  the  celebrated  attack  of  the  Old 
(fuard  ;  but  it  formed  the  most  perilous  crisis  for  the  allied 
army  ;  and  if  the  Young  Guard  had  been  there  to  support  Don- 
zelot, instead  of  being  engaged  with  the  Prussians  at  Planche- 
uoit,  the  consequences  to  the  allies  in  that  part  of  the  field  must 
have  been  most  serious.  The  French  tirailleurs,  who  were  post- 
ed in  clouds  in  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  the  sheltered  spots  near  it, 
completely  disabled  the  artillery-men  of  the  English  batteries 
near  them ;  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  crippled  state  of  the 
English  guns,  the  French  brought  some  field-pieces  up  to  La 
Hay*  Sainte,  and  commenced  firing  gi'ape  fi-om  them  on  the  in- 
fantry of  the  allies,  at  a  distance  of  not  more  than  a  hundred 
paces.  The  allied  infantry  here  consisted  of  some  German  bri- 
gades, v\'ho  were  formed  in  squares,  as  it  was  believed  that  Don- 
zelot had  cavalry  ready  behind  La  Haye  Sainte  to  charge  them 
with,  if  they  left  that  order  of  formation.  In  this  state  the  Ger- 
mans remained  for  some  time  M'ith  heroic  fortitude,  though  tlie 
grape-shot  w^as  tearing  gaps  in  their  ranks,  and  the  side  of  one 
Kjuare  was  literally  blown  away  by  one  tremendous  volley  v  liich 
th'J  French  gunners  poured  into  it.  The  Prince  of  Orange  in 
va  n  endeavored  to  lead  some  Nassau  troops  tt^  their  aid.  1  he 
NiiSbauers  would  not  or  could  not  face  the  French  ;  and  some 
battalions  of  Brunswickers,  whom  the  Duke  of  Wellington  liad  or- 
dered up  as  ^  re-enforcement,  at  first  fell  back,  until  the  duke  iv 
rerson  rallied  them  and  led  them  on.     The  duke  then  galloped 


BATTLE     OF     WATERLOO  361 

c  AT  to  the  right  to  head  his  men  who  were  exposed  to  the  attack 
of  the  Imperial  Guard.  He  had  saved  one  part  of  his  centre 
from  being  routed  ;  but  the  French  had  gained  ground  here,  and 
the  pressiire  on  the  allied  line  was  severe,  until  it  was  relieved 
by  the  decisive  success  which  the  British  in  the  right  centre 
achieved  over  the  columns  of  the  Guard. 

The  British  troops  on  the  crest  of  that  part  of  the  pieition, 
which  the  first  column  of  Napoleon's  Guards  assailed,  were 
Maitland's  brigade  of  British  Guards,  havmg  Adam's  brigade  on 
tneir  right.  Maitland's  men  were  lying  down,  in  order  to  avoid, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  destructive  effect  of  the  French  artillor}', 
which  kept  up  an  unremitting  fire  from  the  opposite  heights,  un- 
til the  first  column  of  the  Imperial  Guard  had  advanced  so  fai 
up  the  slope  toward  the  British  position  that  any  farther  firing 
of  the  French  artillery-men  would  endanger  their  own  comrades. 
Meanwhile,  the  British  guns  were  not  idle  ;  but  shot  and  shell 
plowed  fast  through  the  ranks  of  the  stately  an'ay  of  veterans 
that  still  moved  imposingly  on.  Several  of  the  French  superior 
officers  were  at  its  head.  Ney's  horse  was  shot  under  him,  but 
he  still  led  the  way  on  foot,  sword  in  hand.  The  front  of  the 
massy  column  now  was  on  the  ridge  of  the  hill.  To  their  sur 
prise,  they  saw  no  troops  before  them.  All  they  could  discern 
through  the  smoke  was  a  small  band  of  mounted  officers.  One 
of  them  was  the  duke  himself.  The  French  advanced  to  about 
fifty  yards  fi-om  where  the  British  Guards  were  lying  down, 
when  the  voice  of  one  of  the  band  of  British  officers  was  heard 
calling,  as  if  to  the  ground  before  him,  "  Up,  Guards,  and  at 
them  !"  It  was  tli£  duke  who  gave  the  order  ;  and  at  the  words, 
as  if  by  magic,  up  started  before  them  a  line  of  the  British 
Guards  four  deep,  and  in  the  most  compact  and  perfect  order. 
They  poured  an  instantaneous  volley  upon  the  head  of  the 
French  column,  by  which  no  less  than  three  hundred  of  those 
chosen  veterans  are  said  to  have  fallen.  The  French  officers 
ruelied  forward,  and,  conspicuous  in  front  of  their  men,  attempted 
to  deploy  them  into  a  more  extended  line,  so  as  to  enable  Ihera 
to  reply  with  efl'ect  to  the  British  fire.  But  Maitland's  brigade 
kept  shoM'ering  in  volley  after  volley  with  deadly  rapidity  The 
decimated  column  grew  disordered  in  its  vain  eiibrts  to  expand  it- 
self into  a  more  efficient  formation.  The  right  word  was  given 
at  the  right  w — leut  to  the  British  ^or  the  bayonet-charge,  and 


d62  BATTLE     OF     WATEKLOO 

the  brigade  sprang  forward  with  a  loud  cheer  against  tSeir  di» 
mayed  antagonists.  In  an  instant  the  compact  mass  of  th')  French 
spread  out  into  a  rabble,  and  they  fled  back  down  the  hill  pursu- 
ed by  Maitland's  men,  who,  however,  returned  to  their  position  in 
time  to  take  part  in  the  repulse  of  the  second  column  oi  the  Impe- 
rial Guard. 

This  column  also  advanced  with  great  spirit  and  firmness  un- 
der the  cannonade  which  was  opened  on  it,  and,  passing  by  the 
eastern  wall  of  Hougoumont,  diverged  slightly  to  the  right  as  it 
moved  up  the  slope  toward  the  British  position,  so  as  to  approach 
the  same  spot  where  the  first  column  had  surmounted  the  height 
and  been  defeated.  This  enabled  the  British  regiments  of  Ad- 
am's brigade  to  form  a  line  parallel  to  the  left  flank  of  the 
French  column,  so  that  while  the  front  of  this  column  of  French 
Guards  had  to  encounter  the  cannonade  of  the  British  batteries, 
and  the  musketry  of  Maitland's  Guards,  its  left  flank  was  assail 
ed  with  a  destructive  fire  by  a  four-deep  body  of  British  infantry, 
extending  all  along  it.  Li  such  a  position,  all  the  bravery  and 
skill  of  the  French  veterans  were  vain.  The  second  column, 
like  its  predecessor,  broke  and  fled,  taking  at  first  a  lateral  direc- 
tion along  the  front  of  the  British  line  toward  the  rear  of  La 
Haye  Sainte,  and  so  becoming  blended  with  the  divisions  of 
French  infantry,  which,  under  Donzelot,  had  been  pressing  thtj 
allies  so  severely  in  that  quarter.  The  sight  of  the  Old  Guard 
broken  and  in  flight  checked  the  ardor  which  Donzelot's  troops 
had  hitherto  displayed.  They,  too,  began  to  waver.  Adam's 
(victorious  brigade  was  pressing  after  the  flying  Guard,  and  now 
cleared  away  the  assailants  of  the  allied  centre.  But  the  battle 
was  not  yet  won.  Napoleon  had  still  some  battalions  in  reserve 
near  La  Belle  Alliance.  He  was  rapidly  rallying  the  remains  of 
the  first  column  of  his  Guards,  and  he  had  collected  into  one  body 
(he  remnants  of  the  various  corps  of  cavalry,  which  had  sufi^ered 
BO  severely  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  day.  The  duke  instantly 
formed  the  bold  resolution  of  now  himself  becoming  the  assailant, 
and  leading  his  successful  though  enfeebled  army  forward,  while 
the  disheartening  efiect  of  the  repulse  of  the  Imperial  Guard  on 
the  French  army  was  still  strong,  and  before  Napoleon  and  Ney 
could  rally  the  beaten  veterans  themselves  for  another  and  a 
fiercer  charge.  As  the  close  approach  of  the  Prussians  now  com- 
pletely protected  the  duke's  left,  lie  liad  drawn  some  reserveb  0/ 


B  A  r  r  L  E     OK     WATERLOO  363 

norse  from  that  quarter,  and  he  had  a  brigade  of  Hussars  undei 
Vivian  fresh  and  ready  at  hand.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation, 
he  launched  these  against  the  cavahy  near  La  Belle  Alliance. 
The  charge  was  as  successful  as  it  was  daring  ;  and  as  there  was 
now  no  hostile  cavalry  to  clieck  the  British  infantry  in  a  forM'ard 
movement,  the  duke  gave  the  long-wished-for  command  for  a  gen- 
eral advance  of  the  ai'my  along  the  whole  line  upon  the  foe.  [t 
was  now  past  eight  o'clock,  and  for  nine  deadly  hours  had  the 
British  and  German  regiments  stood  unflinching  under  the  fire 
of  artillery,  the  charge  of  cavalry,  and  every  variety  of  assault 
that  the  compact  columns  or  the  scattered  tirailleurs  of  the  ene- 
my's infautiy  could  inflict.  As  they  joyously  sprang  forward 
against  the  discomfited  masses  of  the  French,  the  setting  sun 
broke  through  the  clouds  which  had  obscured  the  sky  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  day,  and  glittered  on  the  bayonets  of  the  allies 
while  they  in  turn  poured  dovra  into  the  valley  and  toward  the 
heights  that  were  held  by  the  foe.  Almost  the  whole  of  the 
French  host  was  now  in  irretrievable  confusion.  The  Prussian 
army  was  coming  more  and  more  rapidly  forward  on  their  right, 
and  the  Young  Guard,  which  had  held  Planchenoit  so  bravely, 
was  at  last  compelled  to  give  way.  Some  regiments  of  tht  Old 
Guard  in  vain  endeavored  to  form  in  squares.  They  were  swept 
away  to  the  rear ;  and  then  Napoleon  himself  fled  from  the  last 
of  his  many  fields,  to  become  in  a  few  weeks  a  captive  and  an 
exile.  The  battle  was  lost  by  France  past  all  recovery.  The 
victorious  armies  of  England  and  Prussia,  meeting  on  the  scene 
of  their  triumph,  continued  to  press  forward  and  overwhelm  every 
attempt  that  was  made  to  stem  the  tide  of  ruin.  The  British 
army,  exhausted  by  its  toils  and  suffering  during  that  drcxidful 
day,  did  not  urge  the  pursuit  beyond  the  heights  which  the  en- 
emy had  occupied.  But  the  Prussians  drove  the  fugitives  before 
them  throughout  the  night.  And  of  the  magnificent  host  which 
had  that  morning  cheered  their  emperor  in  confident  expectation 
of  victory,  very  few  were  ever  assembled  again  in  arms.  Their 
loss,  both  in  the  field  and  in  the  pursuit,  was  immense  ;  and  the 
greater  number  of  those  who  escaped,  dispersed  as  soon  as  they 
crossed  the  frontier 

The  army  under  the  Duke  of  Welltngton  lost  nearly  15,000 
men  m  kiUed  and  woundei  on  this  terrible  day  of  battle      The 


J04  BATTLE    OF    WATERLOO. 

loss  of  the  Prusian  army  was  nearly  7000  more.     At  such  a  feai 
ful  price  was  the  deliverance  of  Europe  pm'chased 

On  closing  cm-  survey  of  this,  the  last  of  the  Decisive  Battles 
of  the  World,  it  is  pleasing  to  contrast  the  year  which  it  signal- 
ized with  the  one  that  is  now  passing  over  our  heads.  We  have 
not  (and  long  may  \/e  want)  the  stern  excitement  of  the  struggles 
of  war,  and  we  see  no  captive  standards  of  our  European  neigh- 
bors brought  in  triumph  to  our  shrines.  But  we  witness  an  in- 
finitely prouder  spectacle.  We  see  the  banners  of  every  civilized 
nation  waving  over  the  arena  of  our  competition  with  each  othei 
in  the  arts  that  minister  to  our  race's  support  and  happiness,  and 
not  to  its  suffering  and  destruction. 

»'  Peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renowned  than  War ;" 

and  no  battle-field  ever  witnessed  a  victory  more  noble  than  that 
which  England,  under  her  sovereign  lady  and  her  royal  prince, 
is  now  teaching  the  peoples  of  the  earth  to  achieve  over  selfish 
prejudices  and  international  feuds,  in  the  great  cause  of  the  gen 
eral  promotion  of  the  industry  and  welfare  of  mankind. 


THX    SIfD. 


Job Date -- - 

Mend  by Time......'.... 

Stab  by No.  Sect Sew  b  .. 

Score Press Strip  Sec  .. 


Tliis  book  bouQd  by   Pacific   Library   Clnd^g 
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defects  nppearins;  In  either  will  be  made  K<fl 
ont   aildltional  cliaree.      •'Bouud   to  wear." 


I 


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